As NCC Slams Telcos with New Sanctions
Although telecoms operators always resist the imposition of sanctions against them, industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission insists it is a good measure to address anomalies in the telecoms sector, writes Emma Okonji
Telecoms operators often disagree with the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over repeated sanctions against them (mobile operators) for various infractions of its regulations, including poor service quality, violation of the directive on tariffs, failure to abide by the ban on promotions etc.
While the operators see such measure as unnecessary punishment and a hard pill to swallow because of the setback it brings to their business, the regulator on its part, had always seen such measure as the last resort and best option to checkmate the operators of their excesses, which oftentimes, fall very hard on subscribers that suffer the brunt of it all.
In the past, operators have deliberately refused to obey the regulator on issues of sanction, but such refusal had never bugged the regulator, who had always insisted on the payment of the fine, no matter how long it takes the operators to pay the fine.
One of the biggest pains of operators concerning sanctions, is that the regulator would in addition to the actual fine, fix a date, which is usually short, for the payment of the fine and also put a string of additional fine, which runs daily, should the operators fail to pay the fine at the end of the ultimatum.
Such is the case with the recent fine of N120.4 million imposed by the NCC on all the four GSM operators for contravening NCC directives on pre-registered SIM cards as well as incomplete and improperly registered SIM cards across all GSM networks. NCC had also given all the defaulting operators until September 7, 2015 to pay the fine or risk paying additional N100,000 fine per day, as long as the main fine remained unpaid.
Recent sanction NCC, on Monday this week, announced that it has sanctioned all the four GSM operators, a combined fine of N120.4 million, following their contravention of NCC’s directives on SIM card deactivation.
NCC had ordered telecoms operators to deactivate all active pre-registered SIM cards on their networks, as well as all incomplete and improperly registered SIM cards and gave them seven days to perfect it or face sanction.
The ultimatum, it was gathered, was the fallout of a meeting between office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Department of State Service (DSS), the network operators and the NCC, which was called to address insecurity in the country. The meeting attributed crimes committed against members of the public either by kidnappers, terrorists, robbers and threats to lives, to the use of such pre-registered SIM cards across all networks.
Worried that all GSM operators still harbor active pre-registered SIM cards, incomplete and improperly registered SIM cards on their networks, after it had given them orders to deactivate such cards, NCC, came hard on all operators and fined them a combined sum of N120.4 million for contravention of its directives.
A breakdown of the N120.4 million combined fine, showed that while Globacom will pay N7.4 million, Etisalat will pay N7 million. MTN, will pay a total of N102.2 million, while Airtel will pay N3.8 million, totaling N120.4 million fine for all the four GSM operators.
According to NCC, its monitoring team discovered 37 pre-registered SIM cards on the Globcom network, while it discovered 35 pre-registered SIM cards on the Etisalat network. The team also found 19 per-registered SIM cards on the Airtel network, and 109 pre-registered SIM cards on the MTN network. It however, also discovered additional 402 incomplete and improperly registered SIM cards on the MTN network. The NCC Regulation 19(1) and 20(1) of the Registration of Telecoms Subscribers, stipulate a fine of N200,000 for every pre-registered SIM card and for every incomplete and improperly registered SIM cards found to be active on any telecoms operators’ network.
The 37 active pre-registered SIM cards on the Globacom network, amounting to N7.4 million; the 35 active pre-registered SIM cards on the Etisalat network, amounting to N7 million, the 19 active pre-registered SIM cards on the Airtel network, amounting to N3.8 million; the 109 active pre-registered SIM cards on the MTN network amounting to N21.8 million as well as the 402 incomplete and improperly registered SIM cards on the MTN network, amounting to N80.4 million, gave a cumulative total of N120.4 million fine that would be paid by all the four GSM operators to NCC on or before September 7, 2015.
According to separate letters dated August 26, 2015, addressed to the CEOs of MTN, Airtel, Globacom and Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services Limited, also known as Etisalat, the NCC said “The Commission, in consideration of the prevalence of infractions and the impact of the contravention on the national database of telecommunication subscribers, hereby impose sanction on all the four GSM operators.”
The letters were signed by the Head, Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement at NCC, Mr. Efosa Idehen, on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Professor Umaru Danbatta, and made available to THISDAY.
Previous sanctions The recent sanction was not the first time that NCC has imposed sanction on telecoms operators, and will definitely not be the last, since NCC believes that the measure of sanctions imposed on operators, is yielding results. If not for any other thing, it is generating millions of naira for the federal government, a situation that telecoms subscribers have challenged the NCC, insisting that the money from fines on telecoms operators, especially the ones that bother on poor service quality, should be shared among telecoms subscribers, which they argued, suffer the brunt of the inactions of the operators. NCC had on May 11, 2012, sanctioned MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat, a cumulative fine of N1.17 billion, for poor service quality on their networks for the months of March and April, 2012.
NCC ordered the operators to pay the fine on or before Friday May 25, 2012, or risk sanction of additional payment of N2.5 million per day for as long as the contravention persists.
The affected operators had refused to pay the initial amount of N1.17 billion, let alone the daily penalty of N2.5 million that later accumulated to N32.5 million per telecoms operator, amounting to N130 million for the four telecoms operators on the 13th day after the expiration of the May 25, 2012.
Again in April 2014, NCC sanctioned three out of the four major network operators-MTN Nigeria, Globacom and Airtel, the sum of N647.5 million for breach of key performance indicators (KPIs) and poor service quality for the month of January 2014. It however gave Etisalat a clean bill as it met all the set KPIs as at then.
The telecoms regulator, in letters dated February 19, 2014, addressed to each of the affected companies, said after collating statistics from the network operating centres of the operators in the month of January 2014, discovered that the services provided by MTN, Airtel and Globacom fell below the KPI published by NCC in 2013.
A breakdown of the sanctions indicate that Globacom was penalised N277.5 million for three breaches, while MTN and Airtel were sanctioned N185 million each for two breaches.
Industry position Although industry stakeholders had blamed the NCC for previous sanctions it imposed on telecoms operators for reasons of poor service quality, which they said was not the fault of operators whom they alleged, were operating under a very harsh business environment, they are however not willing to absolve the operators of any blame, neither are they willing to take side with them, this time around.
Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria ( ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, told THISDAY that although he was yet to be briefed by the telecoms operators, he would not be in a hurry to fault the regulator, since the current sanction bothers on disrespect of the authority of NCC, which gave orders that ought to be carried out. “From what I gathered, the recent sanction is not based on poor service quality, but on a given order from NCC to operators, to deactivate active pre-registered SIM cards and all incomplete and improperly registered SIM cards on their networks for national security reasons, which of course has nothing to do with poor service quality, that is often blamed on operators erroneously. If there are justifiable reasons for the penalty, based on violation of directives, then there will be no basis to fault the NCC,” Adebayo said.
President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, said there was nothing to fault NCC on, since it was a directive given to telecoms operators on matters of national security. He however said NCC could have extended the period of ultimatum to 30 days instead of one weak, to enable the operators deal squarely with the matter, since it bothers of subscribers, which he said, are slow to react to certain issues that concern them.
The genesis NCC had in 2011, compelled all telecoms operators to commence SIM card registration, in order to identity every subscriber on the GSM network, with a view to addressing identity theft, as well as kidnapping and threat to lives, carried out by people, using their mobile phones.
NCC’s plan for SIM card registration was also to use the exercise to develop a national database of all telecoms subscribers, which government or institutions and individuals could sort after for the purpose of obtaining data for different studies as may be deemed fit by the person or persons who need such information. At some points, when NCC perceived that the telecoms operators were slow in carrying out the exercise of SIM card registration, the NCC became directly involved and commissioned its agents in the six geopolitical zones of the country, to begin SIM registration, just to facilitate the process.
NCC, later revealed that more than 120 million SIM cards had been registered and transmitted to the central database by the operators, but lamented that out of that number, 45 per cent of the SIM cards were deemed invalid for reasons of invalid portrait image, invalid fingerprints, and incorrect/inaccurate demographic data such as name, address, among others.
Apart from this obvious challenge that compelled NCC to redirect operators to register those that were improperly registered previously, the NCC also noticed that some agents indulged in buying SIM cards in bulk, pre-register them and sell them at premium to willing buyers who in most cases, do not want their true identities captured in the national database that NCC was building through SIM registration. Worried by the situation, NCC started clamping down on all dealers of preregistered SIM cards and warned operators to deactivate all pre-registered SIM cards on their networks, to enable such subscribers come out to the open to register their SIMs with their correct identities. The office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) had traced the increasing rate of kidnapping and threat to lives, through the use of mobile phones, to pre-registered SIM cards that do not have the true identity of the bearer.
The need for telecoms operators to deactivate all pre-registered SIM cards, as well as all incomplete and improperly registered SIM cards on their networks, has become necessary for reasons of national security.