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Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Report
(Quarter 4 - 2018)

  1. Regional Stakeholders Parliaments With Relevant State Agencies In Charge Of Telecommunications Matters In Edo, Kaduna, Kogi And Oyo States

    The Commission had successfully carried out a Stakeholders Engagement Session with relevant State Government Agencies on Tuesday, 17th July, 2018 at the HQ NAF Officers’ Mess and Suites, Kado, Abuja. Furthermore, there was a need to continue with the momentum of engaging State Government agencies who participated in that event. Therefore the Planning Committee for the National Stakeholders Engagement Session recommended that the Commission commence the second phase of these engagement sessions on regional basis highlighted below in line with CMED’s 2018 Action Plan:

    SNEVENT LOCATIONDATE
    1. Oyo State (South-West) 22nd November, 2018
    2. Edo State (South-South) 29th November, 2018
    3. Kogi State (North-Central) 6th December, 2018
    4. Kano State (North-West) 13th December, 2018


    The Commission successfully organized Regional Stakeholders Parliaments in Oyo, Edo, Kogi States & Kano State.. The engagements were fruitful in the regions and below are the resolutions reached therein:

    1. Uniform RoW rates and standardized review mechanisms applicable across all States;
    2. Uniform approval processes with each State adopting a “One-Stop-Shop” Agency which will act as single interface for all site approvals and RoW within a State;
    3. Dig-once policies to reduce cost of roll-out and protect roads and other public infrastructure;
    4. “Zero interference” commitments to ensure that legal due process will be observed and adequate notice given before any enforcement action is taken against any service provider. Telecoms infrastructure must however never be tampered with;
    5. SLAs with operators to ensure that issues are timeously resolved and;
    6. Escalation processes for all operator misconduct, as well as effective dispute resolution mechanisms.

     

  2. Q4 Industry Working Group On Multiple Taxation

    The Commission equally held the last quarter Industry Working Group on Multiple Taxation at the Colonades Hotel on 26th November, 2018 to enable all stakeholders look at the successes recorded during the engagements session and the areas that require amendment. The following resolutions were agreed upon:
    1. ALTON should collate Taxes from NCAA, isolate Taxes related to their operations and forward those (Taxes) that are not related to their operations to the Commission for possible regulatory intervention;
    2. On the issue of States’ demand for EIA certification, ALTON should engage the Federal Ministry of Environment to obtain clarifications on the matter;
    3. For States that issue similar demands which are not related to telecoms operations, Service Providers should institute legal action jointly in order to obtain a court pronouncement/verdict on the legality or otherwise of the demand.

     

  3. Q4, 2018 Audit Of Mobile Network Operators (MNOS) Do Not Disturb (DND) Facility

    Following the issuance of a Direction to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to dedicate the short code 2442 on their networks for use by subscribers to opt-in to the ‘’Do Not Disturb’’ database restricting unsolicited marketing messages (Voice and SMS) on their MSISDNs, the Commission still received several consumer complaints regarding their continuous receipt of unsolicited voice/messages despite being on the DND facility.

    To ensure that we sustain the integrity of the DND Scheme and rebuild the subscribers’ confidence in the DND process, the Commission conducted a comprehensive audit exercise from 3rd – 11th December, 2018.

     

  4. 2nd Level Audit Exercise Of Forceful Mass Activations Of Telecoms Subscribers Into Various Value Added Services

    The Commission issued a Direction on Forceful Subscription of Data Services & Value added services issued to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) on 21st May, 2018 to tackle the menace of unauthorized mass activations in the telecoms industry.

    We identified over 8,443,367 illegal mass activations in the last audit exercise and established the fact that these practices of unauthorized mass activations of subscribers were widespread and rampant in the telecoms industry.

    Consequently, we resolved to carried out a FULL Audit of 45 VAS Providers who had over 65% and above forceful subscriptions during the last audit exercise.

     

  5. Local Survellance And Intelligence Gathering Exercise From IBZO

    The report of the local surveillance and Intelligence gathering Exercise was received from the Ibadan Zonal Office. In this regard, we wrote to the MNOs, respectively communicating the discovered breaches to them, the letter has been sent to the LRS Department for review.

     

  6. Report Of Enforcement Action Against SIM Card Registrations Outside Controlled Environment And Sale Of Pre-Registered SIM Cards In Akwa Ibom, Cross River And Rivers State From December 4-7, 2018

    The enforcement team carried out the raid from December 4-6, 2018 in Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Rivers States to ascertain the level of compliance on selling of pre-registered SIM cards and registration outside controlled environment. During the exercise, places visited include GSM market along UNICAL road, Mary Slessor and Etim Edem areas in calabar, Cross River State. It was observed that registration was done without following the laid down process; registration agents did not request for Identity Cards before registering Subscribers and registration agents were found to be conducting SIM registration outside controlled environment.

    In Akwa Ibom a GSM Market along Oron Road in Uyo where three (3) suspects were arrested for the breach of SIM Card registration in a controlled environment. Three (3) Laptop devices, one (1) ZTE device and one (1) Tecno device used for the SIM registration were confiscated from the suspects. It was also observed that SIM registration was done without requesting for a valid means of identification.

    In Port-Harcourt (PH), River State the team visited Garrison Market, Artillery Market and GSM Market by MTN office among others. In these locations, prevalence of pre-registered SIM Cards and SIM registration outside controlled environment were observed. The registration agents did not request for valid means of identification before carrying out registration. Efforts to make arrest at the Garrison Market for the sale of pre-registered SIM Cards proved abortive; however, the team enlightened the registration agents on the need for a valid means of identification when conducting SIM registration. Two (2) suspects were arrested in PH. All the three (3) suspects were handed over to the NSCDC for further investigation.

     

  7. Interference Into 9mobile 3G Network In Onitsha, Anambra State

    The Commission received a report regarding an external environment interference affecting 9Mobile 3G networks in Onitsha, Anambra State. Investigations revealed that signal boosters originating from Banks and shops were causing the interference. Enforcement actions will be carried out in the identified locations.

     

  8. Interactive Forum On Commission’s Enforcement Processes

    The interactive forum was held in all the Zonal offices. Papers were presented by the Director, Compliance Monitoring & Enforcement, Head Enforcement, a representative of Legal & Regulatory Services Department, as well as representatives of Zonal Operations Department. The aim of the forum was to educate the zonal office staff on the Commission’s enforcement processes and regulations and encourage the zonal offices to actively participate in enforcement activities within their zones and conduct post enforcement follow-ups.

     

  9. Network Operators (MNOs) Through Interconnect Exhange Licensees

    The Commission received a report on the non-compliance of Globacom with the Commission’s Direction on Routing of a minimum of 10% interconnect traffic by the MNOs for the months of July, August and September, 2018. The reports indicated that while all other MNos are in compliance with the Direction, Globacom failed to comply. Consequently, a pre-enforcement notice to Glo for its non-compliance. In its response however, Glo claimed that its failure was due to the poor quality of service experienced in its attempts to increase traffic through the clearing houses. To this end, letters were sent letters to Breeze Micro Ltd and Nicconex Communications Ltd to submit its comments regarding the claims by Globacom while a memo was sent to the EVC seeking for approval to sanction Glo.

    In their letters, Breeze Micro Ltd and Nicconex Communications ascribed their inability to route Globacom’s traffic for the stated period to inadequate capacity.

    To this end, a meeting is to be held between the Commission and Globacom to seek ways of resolving the issue.