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NCC Bans Telcos from Marketing Promotions and Lotteries

By on November 13, 2012

 

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday banned telecoms operators from running promos and lotteries.

The telecom regulator attributed network congestion to the promos.

This was disclosed by the Director, Public Affairs of the commission, Tony Ojobo, who lamented that the commission has, of recent been suffused with complaints from consumers against the unreasonable promotions done by operators.

He said, “Consistent with its processes, the commission has carefully evaluated the complaints received especially against the backdrop of sustaining the integrity of the networks, the general interest of the consumers, the socio-economic impact of these promotions on operators and other relevant stakeholders.

“The commission therefore has banned all promotions by telecommunications network operators as well as lotteries being carried out on such networks. This ban covers all proposed and approved promotions and lotteries on which the commission has given approval further to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) entered into with the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC)”

The ban, which takes immediate effect, affects operators like Globacom, MTN, Intercellular, Visafone, Etisalat, Airtel, and Multilinks.

The commission however, reiterated its commitment to consumers to ensure that the quality of service offered and delivered to consumers.

“ In due regard to the afore-mentioned responsibilities, therefore and having observed that these promotions have increased the number of minutes available to subscribers for use within a limited period of time thereby creating congestion in the networks as subscribers try to use up the available minutes within the stipulated time.

“That on-net call was now being offered by operators at tariffs well below the prevailing inter-connect rates thereby introducing anti-competitive practices and behaviour.”

“That terminations of calls were becoming increasingly difficult from one network to another and overall consumer experience on the networks has become very poor thereby making it extremely difficult for subscribers to make calls successfully,” NCC noted.

One Comment

  1. Francis Ikpo

    November 13, 2012 at 9:08 am

    Thank God. Chop Airplane, chop motor, win a whole Country with over 75m people, and recently recharge 200 and u could win a trip to Aluu community to be burnt alive. We are tired of all these. Thank goodness for this.