Telecom: The Battle To Liberate Customers

With unwanted text messages, forceful caller tune charges, and other unsolicited services, telecommunications service providers in Nigeria have gradually constituted themselves into a nuisance to many of their customers. Stakeholders are, therefore, calling for permanent measures to checkmate this menace. ITUNU AJAYI and ADEYEMI ADEPETUN report.

The Nigerian Telecoms service subscribers are increasingly getting agitated at the behaviour of service providers, with the new trend of forcing their products and services on consumers for a fee deducted from their airtime. These unwanted services and products were enumerated as unsubscribed caller tune, SMS, fashion, love, health tips and airtime borrowing among others. These unsolicited services do not come free. Between N50 and N100 are usually charged, which is deducted from the customer’s credit.

These unsolicited services range from the serious to the ludicrous. For instance, it is common to receive SMS asking couples to ‘Spend quality time together talking about what is important to both of you. Set some love life goals and write them down on paper’. Such is the typical content of unsolicited messages telecoms providers send to Nigerian subscribers on a daily basis.

Understandably, Nigerians, most times, only grumble at the deduction made from their airtime. This is because the cost, both monetary and man hour that would be required to go and lodge complaints at the appropriate quarters office is huge. So, most Nigerians often dismiss such deductions, albeit grudgingly.

But considering the staggering amount going into the coffers of these providers with over 120 million subscribers on the network, it becomes obvious why the complaints of the relatively few subscribers have gone unattended. For, if N50 or N100 is taken from each of this number every month, the service providers are no doubt, smiling to the banks.

In 2013 business year, MTN alone recorded N793.614 billion turn over, which was a marginal 5.31 per cent rise from the N753.578 billion recorded in 2012 and 4.70 per cent above revenues posted in 2011.

Subscribers, who spoke on the matter during the week, said they had expected government regulatory agencies to sanction the providers since they started ripping off subscribers through different methods.

“Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), including MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat just deliver SMSs to you without any request. It irritates me whenever I get them; especially at a time I’m expecting an important SMS from someone. And I wonder why these operators have continued to do this unabated,” a telecoms subscriber, Ayo Adedeji, lamented.
Subscribers Recount Experiences

Narrating her ordeal, a Lagos-based banker, Tonye Chuks, said the messages become more annoying, when they are delivered at odd times.

“The network operators just like disturbing. Aside deducting money anyhow, the annoying part is that these messages also come when you are sleeping at nights. It appears the authority is not regulating this aspect of our sector very well,” she said.

Another subscriber, Benjamin Alade, said, “I hate it when after sending a message indicating your disinterest in the reception of certain messages, they keep sending same to you. Unfortunately, majority of them will not send you the code to opt out; only a few do. This is very frustrating”,

A telecoms expert, who craves anonymity, said operators are not ready to discourage spam text messages because they enjoy commercial gains from allowing their networks to be used by Value Added Service (VAS) operators or other institutions that send such unsolicited messages.

“There is no way an SMS can come to me without my network knowing about it. Network operators are the gatekeepers. They have to take the responsibility. For instance, there is no way a story will get published in a newspaper without the editor’s knowledge. So, what I think is fuelling this SMS spamming menace is the commercial gains operators derive from such trade, which, in turn and quite unfortunately, constitute a nuisance to the phone users.

“The operators cannot feign ignorance of spam SMS because it is a commercial decision to allow their platforms to be used for sending such unsolicited messages. They make money from it. Unfortunately, the text messages are not targeted and as such, it annoys you as a subscriber, if you keep getting messages you have not requested for,” he said.

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), including MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat just deliver SMSs to you without any request. It irritates me whenever I get them; especially at a time I’m expecting an important SMS from someone. And I wonder why these operators have continued to do this unabated

While subscribers still battle to win the war against unsolicited SMS, the MNOs are also pestering their subscribers with unrequested caller tunes.

Nigeria currently has over 150 million subscribers and had, by middle of last year, crossed the 100 per cent teledensity mark.
Recounting her ordeal with service providers on this, Funke Oyedele said on January 1, 2016, she decided to call some family members and friends to wish them happy New Year, but had an unpleasant experience.

“Immediately after loading the N400 credit on my MTN line, I noticed that five messages came in. As I was not so keen on reading the SMS, I went on with my calls. After about five calls, which lasted for about one and half minutes each, I was shocked to see that my account balance was reading N85. Immediately, I went to check my unread text messages, where I got the most shocking surprise of my life— MTN had removed N250 from my account!

Subscribers at a registration centre

“The network removed N200 (N50 each) for four SMS, which I never asked for. The first message gave me health tips, the second one gave me reasons why I should exercise; the third one was on security tips, while the fourth was ‘How much do you know Nigeria?’ The last message was that my caller tune subscription had been renewed and N50 had been deducted from my account. And despite several calls to the Customer Care Centre to rectify the issue, nothing was done. I had to give up,” she lamented.
Subscribers are also complaining of rip off, when it comes to airtime borrowing from the networks, especially MTN.

Tayo Ajakaiye an Airtel subscriber said: “You are lucky, if your borrowed credit is deducted only once, as it is usually deducted more than once. Worse still, the network begins to remind you that you do not have sufficient credit to place a call, even when you have spent less than half of the borrowed amount.

“When subscribers complain, the call centre operators usually promise to resolve the issue within 48 hours and will send a text message to confirm, but nothing is ever done. When you complain again, they will reassure you again, but nothing is done most of the time.”

Ajakaiye said he had since stopped borrowing airtime credit from the network. “I discovered that despite the fact that the network gains 10 per cent of the borrowed amount, after making just two calls, I would start getting warnings that my credit was too low to make calls and that I should load an all in one card.

“Immediately after recharging, the whole amount would disappear. Again, I discovered that sending SMS with borrowed credit was impossible, especially to be another network,” he explained.

Godwin Aduwa, an insurance broker said MTN has been collecting N50 from him monthly for a caller tune he did not subscribe. He said if this is added to other deductions on SMS, he pays an average of N400 monthly.

“Thank you for bringing this matter to the knowledge of government. These people are killing us. I remember when I asked them for a caller tune and they kept deducting N50 monthly from my airtime credit. One funny aspect is that they will even renew the service without your permission to keep on deducting the N50. I have been to their office to stop it, but instead they gave me a code, which did not work. Since then, I have not created the time to go back. So, we want the regulatory agencies to act now, otherwise a time will come, when we shall ask for our own share of the fines on these companies,” he said.

Subscribers Association’s Position
Commenting on the development, the President of the National Association of Telecommunication Subscribers (NATCOMS), Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, urged telecommunications regulatory agencies to do their work and discourage unsolicited messages by operators, especially those sent for lottery activities and forced credit deductions as a result of caller tunes.

He considered unsolicited messages as an encroachment into subscribers’ privacy, adding that an end to the trend would bring sanity.

“This illegal practice is becoming uncontrollable and unbearable, as subscribers are being taken for a ride,” he said.
Ogunbanjo, who said the time has come for better regulation of this aspect of Nigeria’s telecommunications sector, explained that on the average, a Nigerian subscriber spends about N200 on unsolicited SMS, which the operators deduct from their accounts without permission.

NCC Reads Riot Act To Operators
The Director, Consumer Affairs Departmentof the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Alhaji Abdullahi Maikano, acknowledged that there are challenges in controlling the menace of unsolicited services from service providers, especially the SMS, stressing that operators must sit up and work on these challenges.

He explained that the NCC would meet with the operators soonest to identify the challenges they are facing in checkmating the activities of VAS providers on their networks. He said it is important to do so in order to protect consumers.

The Director of Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, said the Commission had issued directives to all operators asking them to minimise the harassment arising from unsolicited text messages.

“We have said messages should no longer be sent to subscribers at night on all networks. The Commission is putting its foot down against operators and monitoring their activities, as well as issuing various regulations to ensure that this does not happen. We encourage subscribers to walk to the customer care centres of MNOs to lodge complaints”, he said.

He blamed the Value Added Service (VAS) providers for the menace.
“They are not actually coming from the network service providers. Some of them may come from them, but most are from VAS providers without the knowledge of the service providers. These things are like pipes for them to transmit their services and sometimes they get services through the system without MNOs detecting them”.

Recently, some of the operators admitted at the Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF) held in Lagos, that there were issues relating to unsolicited SMS and illegal credit deductions, “but we are working on them and we shall get over them soonest.”

MTN Official at the event, Eghertor Idehen, said telecommunications firm, including MTN are working to assuage the pains of subscribers, stressing that most of those messages don’t actually come from their networks, but through short codes the VAS operators use.

He advised consumers to limit how much details they give, especially their telephone numbers at events and functions, stressing that VAS providers latch on this to perpetrate their actions.
An Etisalat representative, Oladotun Muyiwa, called for more support from NCC, especially for subscribers in roaming environment, lamenting that telecommunications operators have little or no control on VAS providers.

“At Etisalat, we are working to ensure all of them have identifiable routes on the network,” he said.
Speaking at the event, President, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, said all hands must be on deck to address the issue of unsolicited text messages, which is impinging on the quality of service delivery.

“We all must work together as stakeholders. The regulators, the operators as well as the consumers must take collective responsibility on the state of quality of service. We must understand the workings of the industry; we must understand issues of policies and regulations as well as issues of consumer concerns and address them,” he said.

At the headquarters of Consumer Protection Council (CPC), the Director, Surveillance and Enforcement, Mrs. Leke Ogundipe told The Guardian that the responsibility of preventing providers from sending unsolicited messages to consumers lies on NCC’s table.

She said CPC had engaged NCC many times on the issues, adding that advocacy and engagement on the matter had not stopped. She explained that the agency has been able to compel service providers to refund airtime and data to subscribers whenever complaints are received from them.

“If subscribers contact us on issues relating to unsolicited messages, we contact the service providers and invariably, the money is refunded to the consumer. But if it is a general level, that is the aspect of stopping or taking unsolicited services out completely, then that responsibility falls on the NCC.

“We contact NCC, depending on the nature of complaints we receive from customers, so that they can know what the market is saying. The explanation NCC has given so far is that some of these messages are not from the service providers and that they come via the Internet and the service providers don’t really have control over it. It was during the discussion with NCC that we came up with the idea of putting in scam filters and so many other things to stop any of such messages that may come from anywhere in the world,” she said.

She explained that service providers had insisted that the monies deducted do not come to them but to the third party, who uses their networks to send such messages.

“Things are more of global issue and the technicality is what the CPC cannot handle. When such complaints come, we take it to the sector regulators and they are the ones who will now look at the technical issues and see how it can be stopped. Service providers are supposed to put in increased security in order to stop all these unsolicited services. But if it is the service provider that sends the messages without the subscribers’ consent, then we take it up with the provider and refunds are made.