By MKPE ABANG
Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), rather than Value Added Services Providers (VASPs) are the ones to blame for unsolicited and unwanted messages being dump on subscribers across the country because the VASPs act as agents of the MNOs, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has explained.
At a press conference on Monday, September 26, 2016, to mark his first year anniversary in office, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, in response to a question, confirmed that owing to several complaints by subscribers and operators alike, the Commission has set up a task force “to look into the grey areas” regarding unsolicited message and come up with recommendations on the way forward.
Specifically, to give more details, he invited Mr. Efosa Idehen, NCC’s Head of Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, to address the question further. Mr. Idehen, in answering, said the commission fully understands that the VAS providers are its licensees. However, the commission’s direction on unsolicited and unwanted messages is strictly to the MNOs.
“We understand clearly that the VAS providers are our licensees. But one thing is clear: our direction is to the MNOs; the MNOs are the owners of the networks; they are the ones who solicit for subscribers onto their networks,” he stated.
Elucidating further, he said: “If you have a particular network’s SIM card, you don’t see the VAS provider of the message that is coming in, but you know the MNOs. So that is the way we also view them from this (regulator’s) side.
“It is the MNO that we talk to, to be able to control those that it has Service Level Agreement (SLA) with. We are aware that all MNOs have service level agreements with their VAS or content providers; and they have breaches and penalties in that their service level agreement. We have several thousands of VAS providers, (and) we cannot begin to chase all of them. But we just have about five MNOs or six if some of the newer ones are counted as part of them that we can talk to.
“So most times we don’t look at the VAS providers when it comes to this issue because my network provides service to me. And when I receive unsolicited messages I assume that it is my network that is sending them to me because they have other people who develop content for them that they push into their networks, and they push to me.
“And if it is the one they charge me for, my mobile provider has a huge percentage of whatever that is collected from me,” he expounded.
Explaining further, Mr. Idehen stated emphatically:
“So if we need to look at this issue and cure it we talk to the mobile network service providers to say don’t allow this message to go. So they cannot say we are putting a burden on them. They are actually the ones sending the messages to consumers, (because) it passes through their networks to get to the consumers. The VAS providers cannot just send the message if they don’t have that network. So it is their duty to ensure that they do that work perfectly.”
There has been huge outcry by virtually all subscribers – Nigeria’s subscription numbers stand at over 140 million – over ceaseless unsolicited and unwanted short messages being pushed to mobile subscribers by and through the networks.
The regulator has in turn also come up with a Do-Not-Disturb direction, which all operators aren required to heed; thus, where a subscriber activates the code, such subscriber should no longer receive such messages. But although several subscribers have opted in by activating the DND code, the unsolicited messages just keep coming.
As a consequence of the complaints, the commission recently issued a public notice that it would come down hard on the MNOs if they do not heed to its direction by acting to the letter of the DND once a subscriber activates it.
Speaking on what the commission has also asked the MNOs to do regarding the unsolicited and unwanted messages, Mr. Idehen stated:
“We have also told them to put a sort of filtering platform to help aggregate those contents coming into their networks and filter before they push them to the various subscribers.
“We also have a working group on the short code; and that working group is developing a code of conduct for performance of VAS providers, because most of those short codes are now being updated from their VAS level.”
And, stressing the earlier warning that the commission will enforce the DND direction unless MNOs obey and act accordingly, he said:
“And, we also have in-house now a task force working on this Do-Not-Disturb (direction), and very soon we will be going out to make sure that every rule and every direction that we have given is obeyed to the letter.”