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NCC to regulate value added service operations

By BusinessNews Staff on August 15, 2014

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has decided to regulate the activities of Value Added Service (VAS) operators in the country, especially in the area of unsolicited mails that are regularly sent to telecoms subscribers.

The plan is to put in place, regulatory framework to protect consumers and also create revenue streams for service providers in the industry.

The exponential growth in the Nigerian telecoms industry in the last 13 years gave rise to the evolution of VAS, where its operators provide support communications services to subscribers, via the smartphone. They provide plethora of services such as news breaks, ring back tunes, telemarketing, mobile entertainment, flight information, among others. But such services are becoming a nuisance to telecoms subscribers as they constitute unethical practice, forcing unsolicited text messages on subscribers and compulsorily billing them for the services.

The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, said at a press conference in Lagos recently, that the commission has received avalanche of complaints from Nigerian subscribers regarding forceful activation of various value added services by service providers without their consent. He said said the commission would consider a situation where it would regulate the activities of VAS operators in the telecoms industry.

He said large level of illegal operations are being carried out in the process, with some mobile operators aiding and abetting their illegalities.

Juwah, who was represented by the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management of NCC, Dr. Okechukwu Itanyi, further stated that a high level of telemarketing has been witnessed, especially unsolicited messages by mobile network operators/value added service operators.
He noted that about $200 million had been lost to such illegalities, with a huge potential to accelerate to $500 million in the next few years.

Head, Compliance and Enforcement Department of NCC, Mr. Efosa Idehen, said: “The objective is to present our findings and views on the host of issues identified during our monitoring exercises against international best practises, develop an appropriate regulatory framework to ensure ethical practises on value added service provisions in the country. Indeed participatory regulation has become established in our culture in NCC as a means of soliciting industry response to a host of issues.”

He further said the exercise was not meant to apportion blames on any mobile value added service provider or mobile network operators, but to ensure the provision of fair and transparent services to consumers in the Nigerian telecommunications industry.

The National Coordinating Consultant, Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPAN), Mr. Simon Aderinlola said VAS operators were duly licensed by NCC to operate in the industry and that the issue of unsolicited text messages could be resolved by tracking some of the spam text messages in the system. He advised that the right regulations be put in place to avoid a situation where NCC will be working towards killing innovations in the telecoms industry.

[This Day]

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