Who will save us from the Telcos?

A little while ago, I had cause to review and comment on the crisis in the telecommunications sector. The problems have remained and even gotten worse, due mainly to the absence of effective regulation.

We cannot and must not give up, because communication is a right.

According to the Nigerian Communications Commission Act of 2003, the main objective of introducing the GSM regime in Nigeria is to “promote the provision of modern, efficient, reliable, affordable and easily accessible communications services and the widest range thereof throughout Nigeria.” Very sound on paper, you would readily agree. But check out those words: modern, efficient, reliable, affordable, accessible.

The telecommunication companies (Telcos) have successfully and wickedly turned the law upside down, in their favour and against the ordinary Nigerian.

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The goal of every global system of mobile communications is to meet the changing dynamics of technology and the changing lifestyles of human beings. It is designed to be efficient, given the purpose for which it was conceived. It should be reliable, especially in moments of great need and emergencies and at the same time affordable, being a system involving the people. The concept of accessibility for telecommunications is so that trade and commerce will blossom thereby, especially in the hinterlands, where the CDMAs should have been deployed with equal facilities as GSM, in order to arrest the constant migration to the cities.

On record, the NCC Act contains very detailed provisions meant to protect consumers through regulation, monitoring and enforcement, by the Nigerian Communications Commission, but it would seem that the will to act has been lacking, in most cases, resulting into inefficient services by the operators. For instance, under and by virtue of section 4 (1) (b) of the Act, the NCC is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring the “protection and promotion of the interests of consumers against unfair practices including but not limited to matters relating to tariffs and charges for the availability and quality of communications services, equipment and facilities.” No one has any doubt whatsoever that NCC is not doing anything near the protection and promotion of the interests of the consumers, as the Telcos have virtually become lords unto themselves, profiteering through arbitrary charges, drop calls and unsolicited messages and hidden charges.

Surely there are multiple challenges being faced by the Telcos, from poor infrastructure, especially lack of electricity, to vandalisation of valuable equipment, security of staff, multiple taxes and the high cost of maintenance of facilities, all of which are not peculiar to Nigeria. This is the reason given for the unusual high tariff for voice calls and data usages by which the service providers are expected to mitigate their supposed ‘losses’ and in return render efficient services. The consumers have continued to be on the losing side of the telecoms business, notwithstanding that a new board was recently constituted for the NCC. Let us look at it in details.

Presently, virtually all the Telcos have adopted a secret method of fleecing their subscribers through a prohibitive data regime. With the recent increase in Facebook subscriptions, the proliferation of WhatsApp platforms and other social media devices like Twitter, Instagram, etc, the Telcos have suddenly turned data subscription into their goldmines.

This experience cuts across all the telecom companies. No matter the volume of data you subscribe to, it will be exhausted within days and you’re forced to renew same and to keep renewing and renewing! In some cases, the options for data subscription includes the regime of “unlimited” data usage, by which a premium tariff is imposed upon the subscriber in order to enhance seamless browsing. Something is “unlimited” when it is without controls, boundless, unrestricted and undefined. But what we have in real time usage is that the so-called ‘unlimited’ data can be exhausted in just one minute! The Telcos then developed the smart theory of adding the nature of usage, by asking if you ever used your device for video and those other hidden terminologies that they have concocted to always outsmart consumers. If you advertised a contract of unlimited data for thirty days and I subscribe to it and pay so heavily, how can you then turn around to claim that “unlimited 30 days” can become “limited 1 minute”! It is simply a breach of contract, as there is no indication in any of those fraudulent monthly plans being advertised by the Telcos where other conditions were specified beyond mere subscription and payment.

Now the substance of the Telecommunications Act is that telecom services should be efficient, accessible and affordable. In most cases, the data network is so poor that it takes ages to download simple links. How can you claim to operate a 4G LTE data regime and links cannot open in several minutes? This is totally unacceptable. It will be recalled that when the GSM regime started in Nigeria, these same Telcos were grandstanding and extorting subscribers, claiming that per second billing was not possible, until the famous boycott of 2003, which birthed the liberalization that is being capitalized upon today, by the Telcos.

It is the responsibility of NCC, to come to the rescue of all telecom subscribers, by ensuring a transparent, efficient and affordable data regime. There should be a simple, transparent method of verifying data usage, not this present regime of unilateral and arbitrary assessment by the Telcos, that puts all subscribers at their mercy. The Telcos having realized the current heat in the political space, are now desperately deploying an arbitrary data regime that takes them to the bank smiling.

The use of telephone and data services cannot be said to be matters of private contract between subscribers and the Telcos, anymore. Since telephone usage is attached to the freedom of speech and general communications, any subtle denial or restriction thereof, through a regime of profiteering, by the Telcos, will be illegal and immoral. Now if you have observed closely, our greeting and communication patterns have been altered forcefully, such that one cannot even have enough grace to seek after the welfare of others during telephone conversations, all in the bid to avoid excess charges.

What about the hidden charges? Unknown to many consumers, the Telcos have automatic billing systems, by which they craftily subscribe users to multiple bogus services that have no utility value for the consumer and yet they are daily being charged for same. The NCC has to wake up and face the job of monitoring and enforcement squarely. Telephone usage should not become a burden, for whatever reason. Great investments have been made by the Telcos no doubt, for which they expect very good returns, but as we now know that most of these equipment and facilities are being shared by the Telcos and are durable, reasonable concessions must be granted to subscribers to achieve some equilibrium in the telecoms business chain. It shouldn’t be that the consumers are always on the losing side, all the time.

So, I ask the question: who will save Nigerians from the Telcos? Who will bail us out, to ensure that the data advertised by the Telcos and purchased by the consumers is actually allocated, deployed and utilized. It is becoming clearer by the day now, that most of the social media platforms, such as Facebook, WhatApp, Linkedin, Messenger, Uber, Bolt, Taxify, Instagram, etc, are into some collaboration with the Telcos to increase video on all connections, in order to consume more data, all to the benefit of the Telcos.