Re: Telecoms operators dare NCC, still send unsolicited messages, calls to subscribers

Your brilliant writeup (Nigerian Tribune, 12 July, 2016) on the penchant of mobile telecommunication operators to bombard subscribers with endless, annoying messages and voice messages is apt.

One really wonders why our own NCC had become powerless in view of the long suffering of Nigerian subscribers in the hands of companies that promise to provide services but are more interested in sending annoying messages at unholy hours. You cannot believe that I got a message that woke me up at 02:30 hours one particular night. I stayed up for two hours before I could sleep again.

Recently, I read in the papers that with effect from June 1, 2016, the operators will pay fine for sending crazy messages to subscribers unless they allow users request ‘Do Not Disturb.’ We thought we were winning until I sent the message to their short code: 2442. That was the beginning of my troubles. Although acknowledged, another message instructed me to log on to https://donot disturb.mtnonline.com:8081/vasportal.

Password was sent to be used to log in. It was all a huge ruse. Not only do the unsolicited messages and calls come in deluge, but N50  was deducted from my balance for subscription to MTNPlay’s for subscribing to Sahara Reporters. As I was about to send this, MTN deducted another N50 for subscribing to Sahara Reporters. I just yanked the SIM card from my phone.

All the companies had turned Nigeria into a country for making easy money due to the lackadaisical attitude of our monitoring organ.

Tunde Bamkefa, Ondo State