Communication
NCC blocks 10.7 million telephone lines
ABUJA-THE Nigerian Communications Commission has blocked 10.7 million mobile telephone lines in the last one week (since August 11) for improper registration.
It said on Tuesday that at the completion of a “strict monitoring of mobile operators in the country,” it was likely to block 28.61 million more lines found to be defective, which would bring the total number of deactivated lines to 38.78 million.
Speaking in Lagos, the NCC said the lines were barred due to improper registration details including poor fingerprints; lack of facial information and other biometric challenges.
The Head of SIM Registration Project, NCC, Mr. Bashiru Idris, said the operators and their agents were expected to ensure proper biometric capturing of subscribers including the fingerprints and facial outlook, “but they failed to do so in most cases.”
According to the commission’s Head of Compliance and Monitoring Unit, Efosa Idehen, the regulator has since the expiration of the ultimatum given to operators (August 11), been visiting the operators to ensure compliance.
He said that in September 2014, the NCC discovered that from the SIM data the operators sent to the commission for hamonisation, some were defective and had to be returned to the operators for proper and complete checks.
Idehen said, “18.6 million SIM data were sent back to MTN Nigeria; 10.46 million to Etisalat; 7.49 million to Airtel; and 2.23 million to Globacom.
“The huge figures are a sign that the operators are partially committed to the exercise; more so, the NCC monitoring exercise proved us right.”
He said out of the about 18.6 million SIM registration data found to be defective on MTN network, only about 1.6 million had been barred.
“What MTN actually did was to put the affected subscribers on ‘Receive calls only’, which means the subscribers cannot put a call through to another network. With this, there was no compliance from MTN,” Idehen said.
He also said, “During our visit to Airtel, the telecommunications service had fully barred 2.3 million lines from their networks. These are SIM data found to be incomplete. At Globacom, 3.5 million lines have been barred also from their network.
“Globacom gave assurance of 24 hours to deactivate other lines found to be defective on their networks.
“Etisalat has barred 3.3 million lines and promised that within 24 hours, others found to be challenging will be removed totally from the networks.”
Idehen said the directive given to the operators was to block any line found to have incomplete registration, while they (operators) could later urge the affected subscribers to come and complete their registration.
He, therefore, said that to check any excesses henceforth, “operators will be required to send correct data for hamonisation to the regulator.”
He said the NCC would sanction any operator going contrary to the stipulation of the SIM Card Registration Code, sections 19 to 21, with an errant operator paying N200,000 for each flaw.
PUNCH-
In a significant market projection, Mordor Intelligence predicts that the Nigerian telecom sector is set to surge to a value of $11.43 billion by 2029.
The report anticipates a steady growth trajectory with a cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) of 4.70% between 2024 and 2029, based on the current market value of $9.09 billion.
The transformation of Nigeria’s telecom landscape, fueled by government initiatives to boost internet infrastructure and broadband connectivity, coupled with rising data consumption, 5G deployments, and innovative strategies from major telecom players, is expected to drive this substantial market expansion.
The report underscores additional factors propelling the growth of Nigeria’s telecom sector, emphasizing the surge in smartphone adoption.
the report said “Increased smartphone adoption in Nigeria has fueled the development of a dynamic digital services sector. Currently, millions of Nigerians use mobile apps, including social networking sites, e-commerce, and financial services.
“These apps could leverage smartphones’ capabilities to offer speed, convenience, and efficiency, encouraging more people to invest in smartphones.
“In addition to these expansions and collaborations, the growing adoption of digital technologies and government support in aiding the same alongside the 5G technology implementation across the country is analyzed to boost the demand for telecom towers significantly.”
“In addition to these expansions and collaborations, the growing adoption of digital technologies and government support in aiding the same alongside the 5G technology implementation across the country is analyzed to boost the demand for telecom towers significantly.”
Mordor Intelligence highlights that the flourishing e-commerce and digital service platforms in Nigeria are significant drivers behind the escalating demand for dependable telecom services in the country.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted MTN’s request to partially disconnect Globacom (Glo) from its network owing to unsettled interconnect charges.
Reuben Muoka, the NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, disclosed this in a document named ‘Pre-Disconnection Notice’ on Monday.
The move follows Glo’s persistent failure to clear its outstanding debts despite multiple attempts to resolve the issue.
Under this partial disconnection, Globacom subscribers will solely receive calls from MTN users, while retaining access to other network services like outgoing calls to other networks and data services.
However, they won’t be able to initiate calls to MTN users during this period.
The statement read, “All subscribers are, therefore requested to take notice that the Commission has approved the Partial Disconnection of Globacom to MTN in accordance with Section 100 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 and Paragraph 9 of the Guidelines on Procedure for Granting Approval to Disconnect Telecommunications Operators, 2012.
“At the expiration of 10 days from January 8, 2024, subscribers of Globacom will no longer be able to make calls to MTN but will be able to receive calls.
“The Partial Disconnection, however, will allow in-bound calls to the Globacom network,” it added
Nigerian telecommunication users, along with others within the country, expended a total of N3.33 trillion on various telecom services such as calls, data, SMS, and more throughout 2022, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
This information comes from the recently published ‘2022 Subscriber/Network Data Annual Report’ by the NCC, which also revealed that telecom companies generated N3.33 trillion in overall revenue for that year.
The report further highlights a noteworthy growth of active voice subscriptions, rising from 195,463,898 subscriptions in 2021 to 222,571,568 by December 2022, marking a 13.86% year-on-year increase.
Commenting on the increase, it said, “The increase in the Operators’ subscriber base was attributed to a number of reasons which includes subscriber loyalty, promos, seasonal effects, aggressive consumer acquisition drive, and competitive product offerings across all the networks.”
It noted that the growth in active subscriptions impacted positively on other derived telecom indicators such as teledensity, Internet penetration as well as broadband penetration.
Data usage also continued its surge in 2022. It increased by 46.77 per cent to 518,381.78TB as of the end of the year.
The NCC stated, “There was an increase in the volume of data consumed at the year-end December 2022 when compared with the year-end December 2021.
“The total volume of data consumed by subscribers increased to 518,381.78TB as of December 2022 from 353,118.89TB as of December 2021. This represents an increase of 46.77 per cent in data consumption within the period.”
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