Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), has barred telecoms in the country from further promoting ongoing or planned promotional sales campaigns, in effort to address the worsening quality of service provision.

Tony Ojobo, Director of Public Affairs of NCC, in a statement monitored on NCC website, stated that the commission had verified that the various promotional sales campaigns by the telecom operators had led to network congestions, and contributed greatly to the poor QoS experienced in the country.

He noted that it the Commission has carefully evaluated the complaints received especially against the backdrop of sustaining the integrity of the networks, the general interest of the consumers, the socio-economic impact of these promotions on operators and other relevant stakeholders.

Consequently, the Commission noted that the ban covers all proposed and approved promotions and lotteries on which it has given approval further to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered into with the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC).

“The Commission is also mindful of its statutory responsibilities such as; to protect and promote the interest of consumers against unfair practices, promote fair competition in the industry by protecting Operators from misuse of market power and anti-competitive/unfair practices by other operators,” noted Ojobo.

Affected in this latest ban from further promotional sales campaigns are: Globacom Ltd (operators of Glo Mobile), MTN, Intercellular Nigeria Plc, Visafone, Etisalat, Airtel and Multilinks.

This ban is with immediate effect and shall continue to remain in force until such a time as may be determined by the Commission.

Ojobo stated that the Commission had taken into cognisance, the implications of its actions, but said it took the decision in the interest of consumers and the haven observed that these promotions have increased the number of minutes available to subscribers for use within a limited period of time thereby creating congestion in the networks as subscribers try to use up the available minutes within the stipulated time.

“That on-net call was now being offered by Operators at tariffs well below the prevailing inter-connect rates thereby introducing anti-competitive practices and behaviour.

Termination of calls were becoming increasingly difficult from one network to another and overall consumer experience on the networks has become very poor thereby making it extremely difficult for subscribers to make calls successfully.”