The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is set for the resumption of penalties and fines on telecoms operators that failed to commence the enforcement of the Do Not Disturb (DND), code which compels them to stop sending unsolicited messages to their subscribers.
Explaining the reasons behind the fines regime, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Umar Dambatta at a meeting with the Academia on ITU Study Group Participation at Digital Bridge Institute, Abuja, said the move became imperative because the NCC had given the operators ample time to comply with the regulatory directive and was now ready to enforce the N5 million fine stipulated for any breach of the directive by the regulator.
In his voice, “We are at the stage of imposing the Do Not Disturb (DND), code direction, meaning that any breach of this direction will attract a fine of N5 million.
“If a consumer lodges complaint to NCC that a MNO send unsolicited text messages and the complaint from the consumer get to us, we will ensure that credit deducted from the consumers for this unsolicited text messages is returned to the consumer and will also invoke provision of the fine on the MNO which is N5 million.
“This is to ensure total compliance and this is a measure of last resort. The NCC imposes regulation as a measure of last resort, after we have given the MNO time to ensure compliance and we have monitored them to ensure compliance to ensure that the compliance is not selective.”
Business Hilights recalls that the regulator had been warning the networks before now but some of them failed to comply, thus encouraging NCC to get set for penalties.
Apart from the regulators campaign for seamless administration of DND, some aggrieved subscribers had gone to Court and came back with justice as several rulings on the related matters favoured subscribers both in Abuja and Lagos High Courts since last year.
