NCC may revoke licences of Vodacom, Swift, others if…

The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has barred over 750,000 numbers belonging to Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Limited, Swift Telephone Networks and other telecommunication operators over masking activities.

NCC, which also sanctioned some other operators in the telecommunications industry over masking of international calls and other crimes, threatened that it reserved the right to revoke their licences should the service providers fail to take the required corrective measures.

Aside call masking, which is an act of concealing international calls coming into a country and presenting them as local in order to make profits from the difference in prices between local and international calls, other crimes for which the operators were sanctioned for included call refiling and SIM boxing.

Announcing the sanctions which ranged from suspension of licences to issuance of warning letters to the operators in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, by the Director of Public Affairs, NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, the body said that it had commenced the second phase of investigation on the involvement of digital mobile operators in masking activities.

“The NCC has recently been inundated with complaints from service providers and consumers regarding the high incidence of call masking, call refiling and SIM boxing. Generally, the practice complained of involves disguising international calls as local calls in order to profit from price differentials between international and local calls.

“Apart from the resultant loss of revenue by service providers, the practice also has some negative security implications. Following a painstaking investigation process, which included collaboration with the office of the National Security Adviser and the Department of State Services, the commission has imposed a range of sanctions on licensees involved in the fraudulent practice,” Ojobo said.

According to Ojobo, the sanctions include suspension of the interconnect clearing house licence issued to Medallion Communications Limited for a period of 90 days, in the first instance, and issuance of a strong warning to Interconnect Clearinghouse Nigeria Limited.

Others he said were disconnection of Information Connectivity Solutions Limited and Solid Interconnectivity Services Limited from all networks until they regularise their operations, and issuance of letters to Exchange Telecoms Limited, NiconnX Limited and Breeze Micro Limited, cautioning them against engaging in the fraudulent practice.

The commission further barred over 750,000 numbers assigned to several Private Network Links and Local Exchange Operator licensees. The numbers were discovered to have been used for the masking activity, he said.

Ojobo revealed that the sanctioned operators were found to be directly and indirectly complicit in several infractions as covertly allowing organisations with expired licences to transit calls and failure to undertake due diligence on parties seeking to interconnect, among others.

On the barring of numbers, he said that over 750,000 individual numbers across the nation, which according to him made up of about 31 number ranges were barred.

Other licensees whose number ranges were barred apart from Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Limited and Swift Telephone Networks Limited are, Vezeti Communications Services Limited, Voix Networks Limited, Mobitel Limited, Peace Global Satellite Communications Limited, ABG Communications Limited, QVODA Telecoms Limited, Wireless Telecoms Limited and Emcatel Networks Limited.

READ ALSO: VAIDS: FIRS to clampdown on prominent Nigerians after March 31 amnesty deadline

“The commission is pleased to note that the incidence of call masking has significantly reduced since it commenced a multi-faceted approach to address the menace.

“The commission hereby informs all stakeholders that the actions so far taken are just the first stage of the exercise. The second stage, which has now commenced, will focus on the Mobile Network Operators and other persons involved in SIM boxing.

“The aim of the commission is to completely stamp out the fraudulent practice in the overall interest of all Nigerians. Accordingly, every service provider that has been sanctioned still has an opportunity to correct the identified anomalies and satisfy the commission that it should be allowed to continue to operate in Nigeria,” he said.

 

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now