129m Subscribers Yet To Activate Do-Not-Disturb Code
By Gina Emmanuel
With a view to review the ‘Year of the Consumer campaign’ as enters its ninth month, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) revealed that only 10 million out of 139,905,213 million subscribers have activated the do-not-disturb code.
While 129,905,213 are yet to be convinced enough to tap into the NCC’s iniative.
Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC),Prof Umar Garba Danbatta disclosed that the commission would take a review of implementation of the consumer initiative project next year with a view to taking the next line of action.
He explained that the campaign recorded about 10 million Nigerians ,who activated the Do-Not-Disturb facility made available by the agency.
Speaking at the sideline of 5th Meeting of the National Council of Communications and Information Technology in Katsina, the Danbatta said only 500,000 telecom subscribers had activated the NCC’s 2442 short code to stop telemarketing and other unsolicited text messages on their phones before the commencement of the campaign.
“We embarked on the campaign specifically with the regards to two important issues. One is, Do-Not-Disturb facility as we had received a lot of complaints that many consumers received unsolicited text messages and for which they are unfairly being charged. We dedicated a facility that will stop those messages from coming to the handsets of the consumers.
“We have been sensitizing consumers on how to take the advantage of this facility by sending STOP to 2442. Prior to the commencement of the campaign less than 500,000 Nigerians activated the code”.
The NCC’s boss said, the other component of the campaign was to sensitize Nigerians about the existing of the NCC’s toll-free line (622), which consumers can use to lodge complaints with regards to Quality of Service (QoS) and other related services.
“There’s also another important aspect of the campaign, educating the consumers on the existence of emergency call centers using a toll free line,112. One is being constructed in each state of the federation in order to provide reprieves to people in distress”.
