The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NCC

  • NCC must hear this!

    SIR: Ever since I have been hearing of GSM operators in Nigeria illegally deducting charges and different network issues from subscribers, I have never been a part to such fraud until last week Friday, September 13. On that day, I called MTN customer care (180) from my MTN line and the voice at the other end that introduced herself as Amaka introduced a package to me called “MTN GOODY BAG”.

    She convinced me about the package and immediately, I opted for it. The sum of N750 was deducted from my available credit after sending G750 to 131. I was told I could now enjoy the package for a validity period of 30 days which include 150 minutes of free MTN to MTN calls, 200free sms messages to other MTN lines and more. Alas, I never enjoyed such goodies. After calling for free within two days and a cumulative 69 minutes used, MTN started deducting from my normal available credit whenever I called. I made several frantic efforts to call the customer care but on five different occasions within three days, their personnel were always telling me that they were trying to fix the problem and will get back within 24hours which they never did. One of them (Bukola) even told me to sum up my last call duration for the previous three days that it should be up to the 150 minutes but as luck would have it, I use an android mobile phone so I was able to calculate it from my call logs and told her it was just 69mins in total. She promised to call back and lodged the complaint on my behalf but she never did.

    I call on the appropriate authorities on behalf of other subscribers that are victims of such fraudulent acts by our GSM operators to please look into this matter as a matter of urgency even as I seek immediate reversal of my N750 credit by MTN as soon as possible. It was indeed MTN “Bad Bag” for me!

    • Bayo Eniasoro

    Ibadan

     

     

  • NCC arrests suspected cable vandals

    NCC arrests suspected cable vandals

    The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) yesterday arrested 12 suspects for transmitting illegally broadcast signals of Multichoice (DSTV) worth N29.3m in Awada, Obosi Anambra State. Director General of NCC, Afam Ezekude, told newsmen that the Commission acted on information and surveillance reports.

    He said they stormed the community and other designed locations with the help of armed security operatives, arrested 12 suspects for transmitting illegal broadcasting signals of Multichoice (DSTV) at a give-away price. Ezekude, represented by the Zonal Manager Emeka Ogbona, revealed that the total illegal transmitting decoders, transmission boasters, rolls of installation wires, with other accessories, were worth N29.3million.

    He lamented that the vandalisers went about making the installations for a giveaway price of N500 each and agreed for monthly subscription of about N500 each making it N1,000 for what others paid hundreds of thousands and millions of naira to have.

    He noted that the raiding was an indication of the Commission’s renewed commitment to its regulatory and enforcement mandate, adding that the Commission was in the process of amending its law. He said when ammended, the law will affect some individuals that obtained the illegal broadcasting signals.

    He said they will be arrested and charged to court in a bid to eradicate broadcasting piracy in the Country. ‘’The law when amended, will provide for a more severe penalty for copyright offences and criminalise illegal usage of protected works thus making subscribers liable,’’ Ezekude said.

    He indicated that the Commission was intensifying its anti piracy operations across the country in protection of the genuine right owners and the copyright industries with a policy of zero tolerance to piracy in Nigeria .

    He called on members of the public, together with stakeholders in the creative industries to support the on-going National Copyright protection and anti- piracy campaign, adding that the Commission cannot win the war alone.

    He advised those who operate illegal transitions and those who patronise them to desist from such acts to avoid been arrested and prosecuted.

  • Govt resolves NCC/NESREA rift over base station

    Govt resolves NCC/NESREA rift over base station

    The Federal Government has resolved the rift between the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over base transmission stations (BTS).

    While NESREA was established as a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development and charged with enforcing environmental laws, guidelines, policies, standards and regulations, the NCC was created in 2003 as an independent body to regulate the telecoms sector.

    In the past, NESREA shut some BTS, which NCC re-opened, raising questions about the co-existence of both agencies.

    Minister of Communications Technology Mrs Omobola Johnson said at the weekend during the National Council on Communication Technology meeting in Akure, the Ondo State capital, that her ministry and the Ministry of Environment had aligned NESREA and NCC regulations on BTS.

    “Working with the Ministry of Environment, we have finally been able to align the NESREA and NCC regulations on base stations. We are working to remove any bottlenecks to the speedy rollout of infrastructure. We have collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Works to streamline and standardise the processes and pricing of Right-of-Way (RoW) on Federal Highways across the country.

    This has been adopted by the National Council of Works and is now applicable to state highways as well. The National Economic Council last month formally endorsed these guidelines and have also committed to streamlining and standardising the levies that are charged on telecoms infra-structure,” she said.

    According to her, “These are extremely significant achievements and milsetones as they have established the predictability of the cost of infrastructure development in the ICT sector, reduced the cost of network deployment by ensuring that for every naira that is spent on infrastructure more is spent on actual infrastructure and less on administration and taxes, as well as shortened the period for application processing.”

    The minister said it is the mandate of the ministry to ‘Connect Nigeria’ with a ubiquitous physical fibre, satellite and microwave telecommunications network that reaches the nooks and crannies of the country. She added that Nigerians also have to be connected through the wide ownership of cost-effective devices or access to devices where people can still not afford them while government will aggressively drive the participation of the citizens in ICT businesses and improve local and domestic value add in the sector.

    She said: “Under the Connect Nigeria Programme, a national broadband strategy and roadmap has been developed by a Presidential Committee to facilitate the achievement of fivefold increase in broadband penetration by 2017.

    ‘’The Committee comprised network operators, ICT infrastructure providers and ofcourse representations from the states—an inclusiveness that has more or less guaranteed that the plan will be implemented successfully. This plan was approved and endorsed by Mr President in May and a Broadband Council chaired by myself has already been inaugurated to oversee the expeditious implementaiton of this plan.”

    According to her, under the programme, the Federal Government is promoting the student computer ownership scheme for students in tertiary institutions, continuing with various initiatives to connect schools to the Internet. It will also ensure that universities and research institutions are connected to the Internet through fibre optic cable while the deployment of additional public access venues, the financial and digital inclusion programme that leverages the extensive assets of NIPOST will also be pursued with vigour.

    She assured that the ministry will collaborate with the Ministry of Agriculture to provide connectivity in the rural areas to facilitate the rollout e-wallet programme and extend it beyond fertiliser subsidy to market and other information farmers need to improve productivity. Rural dwellers, she added, will be included in the Save One Million Lives (of mothers and children) programme of the Federal Ministry of Health. – including Public Assets Venues, financial inclusion and ‘ICT for farmers’ projects.

  • NCC warns MTN, Glo, others over ‘unsolicited’ SMS

    NCC warns MTN, Glo, others over ‘unsolicited’ SMS

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has warned nine firms,including MTN and Glo, against sending unsilicited short message service (SMS) to subscribers.

    It has declared as illegal the operation of those companies for not following laid down rules.

    In its Commission’s Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement report for the second quarter, NCC lamented that the unsolicited SMS emanated from value added services (VAS) of the companies, adding that to have a direct engagement with VAS providers, it has developed a database of VAS providers along side their short codes.

    “Warning letters have been sent to VAS providers directing that all unsolicited messages or telemarketing activities within the networks could at best be done between 8am and 8pm in line with the existing guidelines.This is necessary to ensure good consumer quality experience in the industry,” the NCC said in its latest industry updates.

    According to the NCC, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited; Globacom Nigeria Limited, Upstream Limited, Adnol Multimedia Limited, Fun Mobile, Terragon Limited, Rancard Mobility, Mtech Ltd, Elseji, Starfish Limited, Next Generation Tele Solutions, Cloud and Mobilexcetera were identified as major providers responsible for sending these unsolicited messages.”

    The NCC also identified three others, Upstream Limited, Next Generation Tele Solutions and One Communications Limited to be operating illegally as VAS firms.

    NCC argued that its action was pursuant to the exercise of the powers granted it in Section 89 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, which mandates the Commission to monitor all significant matters relating to the performance of licensed telecoms service providers and publish annual reports at the end of each financial year.

    It added that it has, therefore, developed what it described as ‘Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement strategies’to prosecute the mandate and achieve its objective of fair competition, ethical market conduct and optimal quality of service in the telecoms industry.

    NCC also said LG was discovered to be marketing a total of eight different brands of mobile phones that were not type-approved it.

    The non-type approved handsets are LG. Optimus 3D – P920, LG. Optimus Black – P970, LG. Optimus Net Dual SIM – P698, LG. Optimus pro – c660, LG. Optimus One – P500, LG. Optimus ME – P350, LG. Optimus L3 E400 and LG. Optimus L7 P700.

    “Necessary enforcement process has commenced and a notice of non compliance has been sent in line with Section 133 of the NCA 2003 and Section 9 (a) of the Commission’s Type Approval Regulation 2008,” NCC added.

  • Piracy: don’t blame the NCC yet

    Piracy: don’t blame the NCC yet

    AS usual, you were right in your submission in your column of August 10, 2013 that if the National Distribuition and Exhibition Framework (NDEF) could be fully implemented, it can create the much-desired legal distribution owners at different levels of our society and that these distribution ownerships can serve useful purposes in the fight against the present endemic piracy that daily threatens the meaningful existence of our entertainment industry, particularly the movie segment. However it is important for all of us to realize that the mandate of Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) does not extend to creating the copyright or in the case of movies, distribution owners. Unless and until they are created in all our communities nationwide, we will not be fair to blame NCC for not being effective in the fight against piracy. I admit that their occasional comedy of seizing and burning the so-called pirated copies of movies is irritating but this is not about holding brief for NCC or putting the Censors Board in the dock. It is just that we need to clearly understand the scope of each of the governmental agencies and what they are meant to regulate, administer, promote and or support within the industry. That way, we will know who to hold responsible for what. It is also not about trading blames but imploring that we match our expectations to the enabling legal mandates of each of the agencies.

    Whenever a film is released for public distribution, there are two distinct and legally-separable owners for it; the copyright owners that produced the film and the distribution proprietorship created by the valid distribution contract between the copyright owners and a licensed distributor of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB). Even if the production and the licensed distribution companies have the same owner, there must still be a written transfer between them as a formality. The three major aspects of a valid distribution contract are the period covered by the contract, the territory and the amount payable. The distribution proprietor must also before the release, place a public announcement in at least a national newspaper to establish their proprietorship and as a notice to the copyright owners to hand off the movie until the lapse of the agreed distribution period as enshrined in the distribution contract. Now in reality, it was the copyright owners, the producing company that initiated cases of piracy and most of them neither had the distribution license by the NFVCB nor a working agreement with a licensed distributor, so it was a case of using illegality to fight illegality! Most of the time, the pirated movies were not censored by NFVCB!

    Even where the licensed distribution company was the one fighting piracy, it was either that there was no formal and legally-valid distribution contract between the copyright owners and the distributor or where both the producing company and the licensed distributing company are owned by one person, the process of a formal transfer of the movie by the producing company to the licensed distributing company or inter-departmental transfer IDT – in case of the same company that produced also holding the NFVCB’s distribution license was usually not followed, so it was still an imperfect and flawed platform of the fight. All these do not reduce the criminality of piracy but they make successful prosecution difficult if not impossible. Secondly, since the major distributor had in effect delegated their distribution ownership and authority to the mass of retailers selling the movies at different communities, it was any of such empowered retailers in whose territories the infraction of piracy took place that ought to have initiated the legal proceedings of copyright infringement.

    But again, there hardly was ever a formal contract between the major distributor and the retailers to establish their legal relationship and where there was, there is still the problem of the retailers not having specified operating territories by NFVCB to easily prove their rights as the authorized distribution proprietor of their areas and doing legitimate business where the piracy happened against the pirates. The operating guidelines to the licensed distributors stipulate that they must submit the list of their retailers across the country to the Board before the start of distribution or where that is not possible to make the returns not later than two weeks after release but this is observed more in breach! Some will argue that the retailers don’t have the necessary resources to successfully prosecute the pirates but that is precisely why the NDEF stipulate that National Distributors must have presence in all the geo-political zones, while the Regional Distributors have theirs at each state capital of their zones to give their authorized retailers the necessary support in the fight against piracy wherever and whenever it happens within their territories.

    Another argument could be that the roadside traders will not have adequate interest in fighting piracy in their domains on behalf of the major distributors but this will only demonstrate an insufficient knowledge of the provisions of the NDEF and how it is programmed to operate. Every licensed community retailer is an authorized agent of the NFVCB in the assigned territory. The foremost responsibility of each retailer is to monitor and ensure that there is no piracy of movies in their territory, particularly movies that they have not invested in by buying the distribution right for the territory from the main central distributor. Where the retailer condones any copyright infringement within their territory, or fails to monitor or report any illegal activity in their territory, the Board can withdraw the license of that retailer. Now because the NDEF is yet to be fully implemented, it is the same community retailers that ought to prevent piracy in their domains that are themselves the main vehicle of piracy across the country, selling more pirated movies than the legally-acquired ones! There is a provision for the NCC, Police, EFCC, State and LGA agents to regularly go into the shops of the community retailers to inspect their books and ensure that they are retailing only the legally-acquired movies, but they can only start to do this if the NFVCB, that is legally empowered to create these retailers through-out the country, register and license them; attach each to a specified geographical territory such that there is no inch of Nigeria’s geographical spread that is left out uncovered, and then formally inform them and the general public.

    The summary of all these is that the basis upon which NCC can meaningfully fight piracy has to be provided by the NFVCB and till that is done, I believe we should not blame the NCC for not being effective in the fight against piracy yet. It is also important to appreciate the position of the NFVCB that with the size of our country, the Board needs financial support to be able to carry out the delineation of community retailers territories nationally just as INEC did before the 2011 elections, carry out extensive publicity and promotions of the NDEF so that it can carry all the stakeholders along in the registration and licensing of the community retailers across the country. That is why I suggested earlier that for the FGN’s grant of N300 billion to achieve the desirable impact, the bulk or almost all should be expended in funding the necessary infrastructure that will effectively strengthen our DTH (Direct-To-Home) distribution network. In plain English, it means providing the Board with adequate financial wherewithal to conclude the implementation of the NDEF.

    —Yinka Ogundaisi is a writer, filmmaker and public commentator

  • NCC, NBC to collaborate on digital broadcasting

    NCC, NBC to collaborate on digital broadcasting

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) have pledged to work together to realise the 2015 deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to complete migration from analogue to digital broadcasting.

    They also resolved to explore ways of resolving issues that have to do with frequency allocation before such issues get escalated to the attention of the Frequency Management Council (FMC), a body which both bodies belong. This move, they say, will enable them to deliver the dividends of modern technology to the Nigerian people.

    The agencies reached agreement when NBC’s Director General, Emeka Mba, visited NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman Eugene Juwah, in Abuja.

    Congratulating Mba on his appointment, Juwah said: “We – NCC and NBC – have always been sister regulators and our roles will become more intertwined because of development in technology. These days it’s either you broadcast through the internet or through the other traditional channels that we were used to.’’

    He noted that the importance of the regulatory responsibilities of the two agencies makes it over-riding for them to always look for avenues of cooperation so that important issues can be resolved before being escalated to platforms like the, which they both belong to.

    Juwah said it was important for the two bodies to work towards achieving the transition timeline which he said the country was running out of time to achieve.

    “It is not a question of fighting for turf but to do things properly so that people can know that we are working well in Nigeria for the good of those who need our services,’’ Juwah was quoted as saying in a statement.

    Mba agreed with Juwah that technology was shrinking the two agencies into one, adding that the development has made it more imperative that they synergise.

    Mba said: “We have to find ways to work together for the benefits of the Nigerian consumers. There is the need to work together, not just work together but to build more respect for one another, and develop stronger relationship. Because more and more, as we go forward with digitisation and what this new ecosystem will bring for the sector, you will find telcos who want to be broadcasters and broadcasters who want to be telecos. The two agencies share very unique responsibilities together.

    While we deal with content, programming in the broadcast sector, you will agree that technology is muddling the differences, bringing the two industries together.’’

    Mba also noted that as the country pursues the digitisation process, it has become more expedient for the two agencies to create stronger bonds so as to overcome every hurdle on the way, stressing that the future of the two industries will not be about frequency but about quality service to the consumers.

  • NCC to reduce 90-day porting process

    Three months after launching the mobile number portability scheme for telecoms consumers in Nigeria, the Nigerian Communication Commission is considering reducing the time a subscriber must stay on a network after porting from 90 days.

    The commission’s Executive Vice Chairman, Dr. Eugene Juwah, disclosed this during a forum orgainsed by the ICT Publishers Alliance in Lagos.

    He said the mobile portability service would be subjected to constant reviews to see how it can be improved for the benefit of subscribers. Juwah, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Technical Services, Edoyemi Ogoh, said “the whole objective of mobile portability is to ensure that it keeps improving every day to benefit the subscribers. Already, we have been getting feedbacks and these feedbacks we are getting from subscribers would be incorporated into the porting process to improve the scheme.”

    Commenting on the 48-hour time frame to complete the porting process, the EVC noted “that though the porting window is 48 hours, but from information from the operators, the porting process is now being completed within one day maximum.”

    The forum revealed that, though the exercise is recording slow but successful progress in terms of the processing of porting requests by interested subscribers, a lot of bottlenecks, which had earlier been pointed out by the stakeholders, have now been acknowledged by the commission.

    Our correspondent learnt that other key areas for review include: the level of public education by the NCC; and also how to checkmate alleged denial of quick process of porting request by some operators.

    Also speaking at the forum, the Chief Operating Officer, Interconnect Clearing House Limited, Uche Onwediwe, agreed on the need to regularly review the porting process, stressing that “already, we are getting feedbacks and the information we are getting from the subscribers is about making the service easy to migrate from the comfort of their home without necessarily going to an operator’s service centre before porting can be done.”

  • NCC arrests six for ‘piracy’

    Six persons have been arrested in Edo State by the Nigeria Copyrights Commission (NCC) for illegally transmitting channels of Multichoice Nigeria Limited and channels of other broadcast entities.

    Equipment worth N6million were seized from the suspects, popularly known as Cable Network Boys, during the anti-piracy raid in different parts of Benin City.

    The suspects are Nwankwo Ikenna, Godwin Kadiri, Friday Idemudia, Ogunmwonyi Dave, Ogunmwonyi Osazee and Osawe Osayi.

    NCC’s Zonal Manager Michael Madueke said the raid was a continued effort to reduce piracy for owners to enjoy the fruit of their labour.

    He appealed to the public to stop patronising the illegal broadcast outfits.

    The zonal head said the suspects have been charged to court.

  • ‘NCC can’t regulate technology’

    Chief Executive Officer of Swiftnetworks, Mr Charles Anundu, has said the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has no powers to regulate technology, adding that the firm has concluded plans to deploy long term evolution (LTE) or 4G to its opeartion in the country.

    The NCC has promised to make the operational licence for operators on the LTE to be available in 2015 but Anundun insists that the regulator’s mandate does no cover the area of technology.

    “NCC regulation does not cover technology. LTE is the migration path from the voice-centric to the data-centric (technology). The system we have on ground right now will allow us to do 4G,” he said. He spoke during the formal sealing of the merger agreement between the firm and Direct on PC (DoPC), in Lagos.

    He added that the NCC knew what the firm was doing, arguing that it had already contracted a notable consortium of equipment vendors and service providers to get the technology ready within within the shortest possible time.

    According to Wikipedia, a free online konwledge platform, LTE is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together with core network improvements. The standard is developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and is specified in its Release 8 document series, with minor enhancements described in Release 9.

    Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah, said already, people on 800 MegaHertz (MHz) are being upgraded to LTE.

    Juwah who disclosed this in Lagos, said the regulaor will also auction the 3.5 GigaHertz (GHz) and 2.6 GHz spectrums to operators.

    According to him these spectrums are currently in the custody of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), adding that the broadcast sector regulator has agreed to let the spectrums go.

    “We are about to auction LTE licences. We are upgrading people on 800MHZ to LTE. We are also going to auction our 3.5 GHz and 2.6 GHz. They are not in the custoday of the NCC but the NBC. They (NBC) have agreed to make it available in 2015. It took us five years to do this. We are a serious member of the International Telecommuincations Union (ITU),” the EVC had said.

  • ‘Why telcos can’t list on NSE’

    ‘Why telcos can’t list on NSE’

    Former President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Engr Titi Omo-Ettu, has said the non-institutionalisation of corporate governance in the country is one of the reasons why the telecom companies operating in Nigeria have refused to list on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE).

    He said the telcos may begin to look in that direction when corporate governance is put in place. According to him, this problem may have informed the stakeholders’ forum on corporate governance organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in Lagos.

    He argued that when the issue of corporate governance is embraced, serious companise will look in the direction of listing on then NSE.

    Speaking on Board Leadership & Governance at the stakeholders’ corporate governance forum, MTN board chairman, Dr Pascal Dozie, said it was the absence of corporate governance that led to the demise o some banks in the country, arguing that where there is a strong board, the company is unlikely to die the way the banks went unders.

    According to him, accepting a board appointment is not a tea party because precious time will be spent on running the company. He therefore advised people who are not ready to serve not to take up the board appointment of any company.