The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has acknowledged
MTN’s letter of November 2, 2015 where it admitted infraction in its operation
and pleaded for leniency, which is under
consideration, ITRealms reports.
NCC, ITRealms recalls, placed a fine of N1.04trillion on MTN
Nigeria as a result of violation of Section 20(1) of the Registration of
Telephone Subscribers Regulation of 2011 which states that “Any licensee who
activates or fails to deactivate a subscription medium in violation of any
provision of these Regulations is liable to a penalty of N200,000.00 for
each unregistered but activated subscription medium.”
The fine that was imposed on MTN was the second within two months
after the operators were given a seven-day ultimatum to deactivate all
unregistered and improperly registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM)
Cards. While others complied, MTN did not, ITRealms learnt.
According to the public affairs director at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo,
the fine on MTN Nigeria, was done in the interest of the public which has been
at the receiving end of security challenges.
On August 4, 2015, he said that at a meeting of all the
representatives of the Mobile Network Operators (MNO) with NCC, major security
challenges through preregistered, unregistered and improperly registered SIM
Cards topped the agenda after which operators were given the ultimatum to
deactivate such within seven days.
ITRealms gathered that on August 14, 2015, three days after the ultimatum
expired, NCC carried out a network audit, while other Operators complied with
the directive, to deactivate the improperly registered SIM Cards, MTN showed no
sign of compliance at all.
NCC explqined that the four operators; MTN, Airtel, Globacom and
Etisalat, were sanctioned in August for none compliance of the directive to
deactivate the improperly registered SIM Cards. MTN got a fine of
N102.2Million, Globacom N7.4Million, Etisalat N7Million and Airtel N3.8Million
fine. Others complied while MTN flouted the fine.
Based on the report of the compliance Audit Team, an Enforcement
Team which visited MTN from September 2 – 4, 2015 wherein MTN admitted that the
Team confirmed that 5.2million improperly registered SIM Cards were still left
active on their network; hence, a contravention of the Regulations was
established.
Cyriacus Nnaji/ED,OPs
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