Telecom
NCC Reads Riot Act to MNOs over N30Bn Loss to Unsolicited SMS
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has charged the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to find a lasting solution to the menace of unsolicited Short Message Service (SMS) immediately.
This followed claims by the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS) that telephone users in the country lose about N30 billion to unsolicited SMS) monthly from the activities of Value Added Service Providers (VAS).
These were parts of the fallouts of the 4th quarter /Open Forum of Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF) held in Lagos recently on the theme: “effective service delivery: issues and challenges”.
Alhaji Abdullahi Maikano, director, Consumer Affairs Department, NCC, disclosed that the NCC will meet with the operators soon to identify what could be the challenges they are facing in checkmating the activities of VAS providers on their networks, stressing that this has become very important so that consumers will not continue to suffer from the menace.
But Deolu Ogunbanjo, NATCOMS president, said so many Nigerians are bleeding through this menace.
Ogunbanjo, who said the time has come for better regulation of this aspect of Nigeria’s telecommunications sector, based his analysis on the fact that on the average, telecommunications subscribers in Nigeria spent about N200, which the operators deduct from their accounts without permission.
The MNOs (MTN, Globacom; Airtel and Etisalat) on the other hand have claimed that most of the unsolicited text messages do not come directly from them but through the VAS providers.
At the end of the meeting, the NCC was urged to meet with the Network Operators/Service Providers and VAS licensees to urgently address the issues of unsolicited text messages and automatic data renewal.
Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF) was established by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) about Six (6) years ago as an independent body responsible for advising and making recommendations to NCC on issues and challenges affecting consumers of telecoms products and services in Nigeria.
The objective of ICAF is to ensure that all stakeholders are carried along in articulating a regulatory process that will promote and ensure consumer protection at all times.
At the 4th quarter/open Forum issues on creating customer-centric culture; paradigm shift from customer satisfaction to customer experience led the discussion, even as participants looked at ”Issues and Challenges of Effective Service Delivery”
However, ICAF wants ‘Service Providers’ Compliance to addressed the furore on unsolicited SMS, automatic data plan renewal and credit depletion’
The forum further enjoined Service Providers to progress from customer satisfaction to positive customer experience for all their subscribers.
The forum notes with great concern the numerous complaints of unsolicited text messages in the telecom industry and the need for a comprehensive framework from the NCC to address this issue in order to ameliorate the nuisance this has become.
ICAF also urged NCC to put pressure on the National Assembly to urgently pass the Critical National Infrastructure Bill; while the Commission to address the challenge of Multiple Taxation in the sector and canvass the adoption of the Lagos State smart city model to the remaining states of the Federation.
The Commission and the Service Providers were also encouraged to step up subscriber awareness campaign on industry issues and challenges.
Clydestone Ghana Plc has filed a writ of summons and statement of claim against MTN Ghana, MTN Group Limited and Mobile Money Fintech Limited, alleging unauthorized use of its intellectual property.
The company announced the court action at the Ghana Stock Exchange, confirming proceedings in the Commercial Division of the High Court of Ghana.
The case relates to work commissioned in 2007 that Clydestone alleges was later used without authorisation or compensation.
Clydestone said the claim involves proprietary intellectual property, confidential commercial information and operational methodology developed during the engagement. The company is seeking declarations, damages and equitable remedies.
In a statement, Clydestone said MTN Ghana engaged it in 2007 to develop a commercial and operational framework for a mobile money business.
“The work was developed and delivered by the company’s founder and Group CEO, Paul Jacquaye, and included a full mobile money ecosystem covering the commercial model, operational architecture, implementation methodology and business case.”
Clydestone said the work was commissioned on the understanding that a non-disclosure agreement and memorandum of understanding would be signed.
It alleges these agreements were not finalised despite repeated requests.
The company further alleges MTN Ghana later used its proprietary work and methodology without authorisation or compensation, including in MTN Mobile Money Ghana and other markets.
Clydestone said the alleged use has continued since the launch of MTN Mobile Money Ghana in 2009.
“The wrongful use of that work has been ongoing since 2009. What has changed is the availability of independently verifiable information that documents its scale and commercial significance,” the company said.
It cited the GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2026 and MTN Ghana’s 2025 annual report as evidence of the platform’s scale.
According to Clydestone, the reports show approximately 19.3 million active users and annual revenue of about GHS 6.0 billion ($516m).
The company said it reviewed its records following these publications and concluded there were sufficient grounds to initiate legal proceedings.
It added that it has received no payment or acknowledgement for the work since December 2007, and that pre-action correspondence in 2026 received no substantive response.
“The Board of Directors has unanimously authorised the commencement of these proceedings,” the company said.
Jacquaye said: “This case is about accountability for commissioned intellectual property.
“When independent publications in 2025 and 2026 revealed the scale of the mobile money business, we reviewed all documentation relating to the original engagement and concluded these proceedings were necessary.”
MTN Group Limited, named as a defendant, had not commented at the time of publication.
In a development that underscores the fragile state of Nigeria’s telecommunications grid, an incident of infrastructure vandalism in Delta State has severely disrupted network connectivity, leaving thousands of subscribers stranded.
The breach, where a robber attacked the sites, occurred at an IHS-managed telecom node in the ASB region on July 8, 2026, immediately knocking 33 base stations offline across 2G, 3G, and 4G spectrums.
The situation in the region escalated drastically by morning when a separate fibre-optic cable cut severed primary transmission lines. Because the compromised node serves as a critical fibre convergence point, the secondary fibre cut triggered a cascading failure.
This secondary disruption ballooned the number of dark sites from 33 to 103, temporarily paralysing digital communications, banking, and commerce in the affected communities.
Industry sources reveal that the financial and logistical toll of such incidents is becoming unsustainable for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
Currently, network providers are utilising 20 per cent more spare parts than initially budgeted for the fiscal year.
This unpredictable depletion of technical reserves has stripped operators of their supply buffers, making inventory management and financial forecasting increasingly difficult for telecom executives.
Consequently, engineering teams have been forced to cannibalise materials originally designated for network expansion and new site rollouts just to perform emergency restorations on the damaged sites.
This diversion of resources significantly delays the rollout of new infrastructure, stifling the nation’s broader broadband penetration targets and stalling anticipated revenue generation for the telecom companies.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently noted an average of 1,744 weekly attacks on telecom infrastructure nationwide, including over 1,100 fibre cuts.
As operators endure protracted back-and-forth negotiations with insurance firms to cover these sudden hardware losses, stakeholders are intensifying calls for the strict enforcement of the Federal Government’s recent designation of telecom assets as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) to safeguard Quality of Service (QoS).
Viral rumors about a “Tesla Pi Phone” a new phone, being developed by Elon Musk, CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla and SpaceX, are entirely fake.
AI Generated Tesla Pi Phone and Elon Musk
Instead, the tech giant said on Monday it has filed an application with the US Federal Communications Commission for permission to deploy the constellation by 2028.
It said the system would provide voice, messaging, data and emergency services.
A quick fact-check revealed that Tesla Inc. has never manufactured, developed, or released a smartphone.
Videos and articles claiming a release (often priced between $150 and $800 with solar charging or satellite-only connections) rely on AI-generated concept art and recycled internet hoaxes dating back to 2021.
Musk has only mentioned a phone in hypothetical remarks, stating Tesla would build one only if major app stores completely blocked or censored essential apps like X (formerly Twitter).
On Monday however, his company said that “Amazon looks forward to delivering on the promise of D2D [direct-to-device] connectivity, including to the millions of people living, travelling and working in places beyond the reach of existing networks today,”
The filing is the first step from Amazon into satellite mobile connections, which has until now been dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink service.
Musk’s group has signed partnerships with existing operators such as T-Mobile US and the UK’s Virgin Media O2 to provide phone services for customers where their conventional networks do not reach.
Starlink operates across more than 150 countries, offering high-speed internet connections through its constellation of satellites.
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