The plight of the subscriber amidst the MTN – NCC faceoff

“Paul, did you hear that NCC is asking MTN to pay over one trillion naira as fine for not disconnecting… I don’t even know what they did, I’m just happy that the company is in trouble and they must cough out some of the money they’ve stolen from me and other subscribers,” Dapo, a friend told me when news broke of the hefty fine slammed on MTN Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Dapo wasn’t the only one with this perspective as quite a lot of Nigerians went on social media, some were few steps away from taking to the streets to celebrate what they described as the infliction of pain on the country’s largest telecoms company. The popular belief was that the network too should be punished as it was hypothetically punishing Nigerians with poor services, forcing pastors and Imams to subscribe to its Shina Peters’ caller tune, and being responsible for mysteriously disappearing phone credits. MTN’s cup is really full.

Many users in Nigeria are happy with the NCC fine because they are really angry with MTN Nigeria and for good reason to! However, what are they getting in return from the industry record fine? Absolutely nothing!

Basically, every time a fine is slammed on a telecoms company in Nigeria, the money is paid into the coffers of the regulator, not the subscribers, and everyone is made to believe that the loss of funds would compel the affected company to sit up and improve its service.

This strategy has however not been an extensively accepted one since the subscribers that are directly affected by the poor service are not in any way being compensated nor benefitting from the fees accruing to the regulator from the fine. Many a time, regulators have directed operators to credit subscribers with specific amount of airtime as compensation but the service quality doesn’t necessarily improve as a result. Even though this latest fine has nothing to do with the quality of service on MTN, the expected outcome, peradventure NCC finally gets any amount from MTN, will still be the same, just as obtainable in recent past.

Truth be told, MTN did wrong by not disconnecting those lines as directed by the NCC and getting a fine for this action from the regulators should not be questioned; it is also true that telecoms subscribers in the country are not getting the best from the operators making it extremely difficult for it to find subscribers that will go on streets to protest in its favour, but we must honestly and sincerely ask ourselves whether this fine would get NCC, other stakeholders and the subscribers the best result.

I believe the major reason why MTN’s sin is considered serious this time is because the existence of the incompletely registered lines that are active on its network will put national security and safety of citizens at great risk as exemplified in the kidnap case of a former presidential candidate and elder statesman. And without a doubt, the existence of a reliable and accurate database that contains biometric information of mobile subscribers in Nigeria would really go a long way in empowering the country’s various security agents in their investigations especially as the country is still striving to overcome threats posed by terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram. But will the fine address this? No

As a subscriber and third party observer, it seems as if the NCC is placing a price tag on Nigeria’s national security (few billions over one trillion naira to be specific) by focusing its energy, manpower and institutional framework on ensuring it gets the money from MTN instead of ensuring that the missing data are compiled and the lines are indeed deactivated because since the expiration of the deadline, no word has been said by the commission on the status of the deactivation, it’s been all about the money. Now that i really think about it, maybe this is what it’s all about – money.

But few days ago, my wife was at the Lekan Salami Stadium Adamasingba Ibadan to update the information on her MTN line and she said the telecoms company was using the stadium for that purpose. I would expect the NCC to be overseeing the process to ensure that things are done appropriately and the subscribers are not spending long hours at MTN offices and outlets.

With the way things are concerning the network and the regulator, it appears national security and the subscriber have nothing to do with the lawsuits and the impasse which is totally wrong since MTN promises to provide its subscribers with the best services and the regulator vows to protect the interests of the subscribers in the country.