The Nigerian Communications Commission says it would impose on mobile operators a fine of N5m per subscriber that continues to receive unsolicited text messages despite opting for the option of Do Not Disturb provided by mobile service providers.
Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said this in Abuja on Tuesday at the opening of a training for academics on the procedures and opportunities available at the International Telecommunications Union.
He said for any subscriber that shows that they have chosen the Do Not Disturb option available from their mobile service providers but continues to receive unsolicited text messages; NCC would probe the concerned service provider.
According to him, when it had been established that the service provider erred, NCC would not only insist that the subscriber should be refunded for whatever that must have been charged by the operator, it would also impose a fine of N5m for each subscriber that had been violated.
Unsolicited text messages had been endemic in the Nigerian mobile service industry thereby prompting the industry regulator to come up with a regulation requiring mobile service providers to give subscribers the option of opting out of all unsolicited text messages.
Danbatta said the regulatory agency would focus on customer satisfaction in 2017 but regretted that only one percent of mobile subscribers in the country have utilised the DND service.
He said the agency would embark on massive education and awareness campaign to ensure that at least 50 percent of subscribers can make use of the service instead of complain continually about unwanted text messages.
Speaking to academics attending the training programme, Danbatta said the work of ITU was carried out within three study groups in three areas – radio communications, standards, and developments and urged them to explore how they could fit into the system.
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