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Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Report
(Quarter 3 - 2015)

  1. Commission Sanctions Mobile Network Operators For Sales Of Pre-Registered SIM Cards

    The Commission has sanctioned four (4) mobile network operators, namely MTN, Airtel, Globacom and EMTS (Etisalat) a total sum of N40,000,000.00 (Forty Million Naira) for sales of pre-registered SIM Cards. The breakdown of the fees is as follows:

    1. MTN: N21,800,000.00 (Twenty One Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Naira)
    2. Airtel: N3,800,000.00 (Three Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Naira)
    3. Globacom: N7,400,000.00 (Seven Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira)
    4. EMTS: N7,000,000.00 (Seven Million Naira)

    The sanctions were in accordance with the provisions of the NCC Regulation on Telephone Subscribers Registration, 2011 and the operators have since paid the above amounts.

  2. Notice Of Sanction To MTN Nigeria Communications Limited Regarding Failure To Deactivate 402 (Four Hundred And Two) Improperly Registered MSISDN

    The Commission has fined MTN Nigeria Communications Limited the sum of N80, 400,000.00 (Eighty Million, Four Hundred Naira) for failure to deactivate a total of 420 (Four Hundred and Two) MSISDN that were incomplete and improperly registered. The fine has been paid.

  3. Commission Seals Off SKANNET For Operating With Expired Internet Service Provider (ISP) Licence

    During the quarter, the office of Messrs General Data Engineering Services Nigeria Limited (SKANNET) was sealed for operating with an expired ISP license and failure to fulfill its financial obligations in line with the terms and conditions of the licence.

  4. Directive To Wakanow.com To Discontinue The Sale Of Global Travel SIM

    The Commission’s surveillance and intelligence gathering exercise revealed unauthorized sale of Global Travel SIM Cards by Wakanow.com. Whereas our investigation confirmed that Wakanow.com did not have any valid telecommunication licence, it also revealed that the SIM Cards were not registered consistent to the provisions of the NCC Telephone Regulation on Subscriber Registration.

    1. To immediately deactivate all Global Travel SIM Cards from being used within the Nigerian telecom space;
    2. To immediately suspend the sale of its Global Travel SIM Cards until the organization obtains all necessary authorizations from the Commission.

    Whereas the Wakanow.com had notified the Commission of its full compliance, the Commission would continue to monitor the activities of the company to ensure that it remains in full compliance with the NCA 2003 and other subsidiary legislation.

  5. Commission’s Direction To Mobile Network Operators Against Auto Migration Of Subscribers To Pay-As-U-Go On Data Services

    The Commission has continued to receive complaints from subscribers on automatic migration of data bundle package to Pay-As-You-Go Billing on depletion of the data bundle.

    Consequently and pursuant to section 53(1) of the NCA 2003, the Commission on 3rd August 2015 directed all mobile service operators to comply with the following directions:

    1. That where a subscriber’s data bundle account is fully depleted before the due date, service providers should notify the subscriber via SMS, giving information regarding the tariff/ billing rate for automatic migration;
    2. That all service providers should henceforth stop auto-migration of subscriber’s data service to the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) account upon depletion of the data bundle account, except with the express consent and authorization of the subscriber via SMS.

    A follow-up Compliance check by the Commission revealed the following:

    1. Etisalat is in compliance with Direction #1 & Direction #2 of the Commission;
    2. Globacom is in compliance with Direction #1 as subscribers receive SMS detailing tariff rate for auto-migration on depletion of their data bundle. However, Globacom failed to obtain express consent from subscribers before migration to PAYG and therefore in violation of Direction #2;
    3. MTN is in compliance with Direction #1 but failed to highlight the tariff rate for PAYG billing. In addition, data service is not suspended on depletion of the data bundle account even without an authorization via an SMS from the subscriber.
    4. Airtel is not in compliance with the above directions;

    Consequent upon the above, the Commission has issued a notice of intention to sanction the concerned service providers.

  6. Compliance Monitoring Of Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

    The Commission monitored the Mobile Number Portability Scheme within the quarter:

    Summary of Porting Activity in July & August, 2015

    S/N MONTH SUCCESSFUL SMS PORTING REQUEST COMPLETED PORTS FAILED PORTS
    1. JULY
    35,098
    28,707
    22,886
    5,740
    2. AUGUST
    30,076
    24,499
    19,645
    3,873
    1. There were a total of 28,707 porting requests received from the recipient network in the month of July, 2015.
    2. There were a total of 22,886 successful completed ports in the months under review.
    3. There were a total of 5,740 failed ports in the months of July, 2015.
    4. There were a total of 30,076 porting requests received from the recipient network in the month of August, 2015.
    5. There were a total of 19,645 successful completed ports in the months under review.
    6. There were a total of 3,873 failed ports in the months of August, 2015.

    NOTE
    Please note that as at the time of this report, the figures for September 2015 was being compiled.

  7. Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Scheme

    To address the increasing cases of port request rejections, the Commission has resolved to monitor and sanction violations with MNP process time obligations. Consequent upon the above, series of compliance checks were carried out regarding timer violations by Donor operators with resepct to "validation and deactivation responses"" which have timelines of (Two) 2 hours and 1 hour respectively.

    The following violations were observed during the quarter:

    1. Timer Violations by Etisalat
      A timer deactivation violation by Etisalat regarding a Corporate Port request of over 63 lines belonging to Neoconde Energy Limited. The company had initiated a corporate port out request from Etisalat to Airtel on 7th August, 2015 at 9.13am but was partially completed as at 1.52pm on the same day. As a result, these subscribers were unable to receive calls from Etisalat’s network.
    2. Timer Violations by MTN
      A timer deactivation violation by MTN regarding a Corporate Port request of over 109 lines belonging to Nigerian Breweries Plc. The company had initiated a corporate port out request from MTN to Glo via lead MSISDN: 07036735494 on 11th August, 2015 at 1.20pm but was partially completed as at 11.22am on 14th August, 2015. As a result, these subscribers were not not been able to receive calls from MTN Subscribers.

      In the same vein, a timer validation violations by MTN regarding four (4) individual Port requests from MSISDNs: 08139382308, 08143810152, 08135485305 and 08162108093. MTN breached the timer of two (2) hours for validation of four (4) port requests from the NPC as stated in the MNP Business Rules.
    3. Timer Violations by Globacom
      A timer validation violations by Glo regarding eleven (11) individual & one (1) corporate Port requests. Glo had breached the two (2) hours allowable for validation of six (6) port requests from the NPC as stated in the MNP Business Rules. Glo validated one of these port requests over nine (9) hours after receipt from the MNP adminsitrator. Glo also breached the one (1) allowable hour for the Donor to deactivate one hundred and forty seven (147) Ported out lines belonging to Reckitt Limited consistent with provisions of the MNP Business Rules.

    All the above timer violations are currently undergoing enforcment actions.

  8. Improper Port-In Transaction By Emerging Market Telecommunications Services Limited

    The Commission’s surveillance and intelligence gathering exercise revealed an improper port-in transaction by Etisalat on 1st & 3rd September, 2015. Etisalat Limited had initiated the porting of 296 lines belonging to Etranzact on 1st September, 2015. However, Etransact International Plc confirmed that it did not authorize the port out of any of its number currently with various other network operators.

    Etisalat has been directed to repatriate the lines back to the legitimate operator while the case is currently enforcement attention.