Illegal Data Renewal: NCC To Slam N5m Fine On Defaulting Telcos

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has directed all service providers in the country to desist from carrying out automatic or unwarranted renewal of data packages without the consent of the subscribers or risk N5million penalty. Its executive vice chairman, Prof Umar Danbatta, made this known at the first episode of NCC Consumer Conversation 2018, held in Karu, Nasarawa State. Eyes Of Lagos gathered that, He said the warning became imperative in view of the mounting complaints from the subscribers against the service providers for breaching the extant rules. Danbatta, who was represented on the occasion by the commission’s director of northern operations, Helen Obi, explained that the complaints received by the commission had risen to an unacceptable level that the commission could no longer delay in issuing the directive against operators engaging in the unlawful act. According to him, besides the N5 million fine that awaits the violation of the law, for every day the commission issues the sanction and the fine is not paid by the service provider, it will attract additional N500,000. “The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, on the May 21, 2018, issued a directive to all network providers to desist from carrying out automatic or unwarranted renewal of data packages without their consent. We have also directed that no mobile service providers should impose their services to consumers. It is expected that they should obtain their consent. “There should be a written text by the network provider to the consumer requesting to know whether the consumer is interested in renewing the package, after that, the network provider must also repeat the process to ensure that the consumer understood the terms and conditions of the service and has given consent before automatic renewal,” he further stated.