The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), took its awareness drive about effective use of communications services in Nigeria to the 23rd Enugu International Trade Fair which ended at the weekend where it urged phone subscribers in the country to ensure that they use only type approved handsets. He said the list of type-approved phones was available on the NCC website.
Director of Public Affairs of NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, who spoke at the NCC Day at the fair, which was graced by the president of the chamber, Dr. Theo Okonkwo and its Director General, Mr. Emeka Okereke, said that apart from the possibility of these phones being of substandard quality, they also contribute to poor quality of service in the network. He said that the Commission has recently carried out enforcement actions where it discovered that a number of these phones were not type-approved.
He also spoke about the dangers to consumers of telecommunications services purchasing or using pre-registered SIM cards which is a criminal offence for which the Commission would soon embark on enforcement actions to bring the culprits to book. He said that the law provides for jail term for anybody involved in this nefarious act, and noted that anybody using a pre-registered SIM card that does not bear the person’s identity could lead to many unpalatable consequences and advised users to inform their friends and family members to avoid the use of pre-registered SIM Cards.
He noted the concerns of subscribers about the quality of service on the various networks, but promised that with the current efforts of the Commission, including the recent gazette of a new law on quality of service and monitoring of operators, the issue would soon be fully addressed.