Mobile telecoms giant, MTN, Monday said it was holding discussions with the regulatory agency, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) about how best to resolve the N1.04 trillion fine it incurred for failing to fully deactivate subscribers with unregistered and incompletely registered Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) cards on its network within the stipulated time.
Based on regulations, there will be sanctions as stipulated by SIM Card Registration Code, which says that per SIM found defective on the network, the erring operator will pay N200,000, which was set out on May 1, 2010.
Already, the Corporate Services Executive of MTN Akinwale Goodluck in a statement said, “MTN confirmed that NCC has imposed N1.4 trillion fine ($5.2bn) on MTN Nigeria.
“The fine relates to the timing of the disconnection of the 5.1 million MTN subscribers that were disconnected in August and September 2015 and is based on a N200,000 fine for each improperly registered subscriber. MTN Nigeria is currently engaging with NCC to resolve the matter”, Goodluck said.
Also reacting, MTN Group, in a statement from South Africa on Sunday said MTN Nigeria is currently in discussions with the NCC to resolve the matter in recognition of the circumstances that prevailed with regard to these subscribers.
“Shareholders are advised that NCC has imposed a fine equivalent to $5.2 billion on MTN Nigeria. This fine relates to the timing of the disconnection of 5.1 million MTN Nigeria subscribers who were disconnected in August and September 2015 and is based on a fine of N200,000 for each unregistered subscriber.
“MTN Nigeria is currently in discussions with NCC to resolve the matter in recognition of the circumstances that prevailed with regard to these subscribers. We will continue to update shareholders in this regard,” the statement added.
Industry watchers have reasoned that failure to deactivate the defective SIMs from the networks may aid the activities of kidnappers, insurgents, miscreants and other criminals.
Accordingly, NCC’s decision was taken based on security advice from the Department of State Service (SSS) and the failure to comply with the directive.
As at press time, every attempt to contact Public Affairs officials of NCC for comment failed.
It would be recalled that NCC in September asked operators to pay N120.4m in fines for failing to fully comply with the directive of the commission to deactivate pre-registered and defective SIM cards.
MTN, which has over 64 million subscribers on its network, was asked to pay N102.2 million; Globacom was slammed with N7.4 million; Etisalat, N7 million; and Airtel, N3.8 million.
-Vanguard
