At Last, NCC To Fine MTN, Etisalat, Others N5m For Unsolicited SMS And Calls

After waiting for long for NCC to address this matter, they finally came up with something meaningful because the rate at which all these Telcos are dishing unsolicited SMS and calls to subscribers is alarming. Whether you subscribe to a service or not, you are entitle to alteast 3 unsolicited SMS daily.




NCC said via leadership.ng that the Commission in a ‘New Direction,’ issued to 13 mobile operators by the legal and regulatory department of NCC, plans to sanction any network that refuses to implement it on or before June 30, 2016, the shortcode of 2442 for subscribers to opt-in to the “Do Not Disturb” (DND) database restricting unsolicited marketing messages.

…in a letter dated April 19, 2016 warned MTN, Airtel, Globacom, Etisalat, Smile, Natcoms (Ntel), Visafone, Starcomms, Multilinks, Gamjitel, Danjay Telecoms, Gicell Wireless Ltd and Megatech Engineering Ltd that they should implement the DND restricting telemarketing their MSISDNs including the use of web-based solutions as opt-out measures.

 Subscribers now have the opportunity to opt-out of any unsolicited message they don’t want, but warned operators that generated SMS shall comply with the 8am to 8pm stipulation (12 hour period) for sending SMS to subscribers.

Any operator found guilty of sending unsolicited messages or calls to its customers will be fine a sum of N5 million and N500,000 daily as long as the contravention persists.