NCC fines Glo, MTN for `non-compliance’ to number portability

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has fined MTN Nigeria and Globacom Ltd (Glo) a total of N34 million for breach of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) business rules and regulations. The regulatory body made this known in its “2015 Q4 Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Reports’’ obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.

In the report, NCC noted that of the N34 million sanction for number porting breach, Globacom was fined N22 million, while MTN was fined N12 million. It will be recalled that in the “2015 Q3 Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Reports’’, NCC had resolved to monitor and sanction violations with MNP process time obligations said “to address the increasing cases of port request rejections’’.

The commission said that series of compliance checks were carried out regarding timer violations by Donor operators with respect to “validation and deactivation responses’’ which had timelines of 2 hours and 1 hour respectively. According to the Q3 report, there is a timer deactivation violation by MTN, regarding a Corporate Port request of over 109 lines belonging to Nigerian Breweries Plc. “The company had initiated a corporate port out request from MTN to Glo via lead Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number (MSISDN): 07036735494 on Aug. 11, 2015 at 1.20 p.m. but was partially completed as at 11.22 a.m. on Aug. 14, 2015.

“As a result, these subscribers were not able to receive calls from MTN subscribers. “In the same vein, a timer validation violation by MTN regarding four individual Port requests from MSISDNs: 08139382308, 08143810152, 08135485305 and 08162108093. “MTN breached the allowable two hours for validation of four port requests from the NPC, as stated in the MNP Business Rules,’’ it said.

The 2015 Q3 report also showed that there was a timer validation violation by Glo regarding 11 individual and one corporate Port requests. It said that Glo had breached the two hours allowable for validation of six port requests from the NPC as stated in the MNP Business Rules. Glo validated one of these port requests over nine hours after receipt from the MNP administrator. The report also said that Glo breached the allowable one hour for the Donor to deactivate 147 Ported out lines belonging to Reckitt Ltd, consistent with provisions of the MNP Business Rules.

It however, said that all the above timer violations were undergoing enforcement actions. After investigations by the regulatory body, MTN and Globacom were found wanting, hence, sanctioned to the tune of N34 million in the Q4 2015. The telecoms umpire, in its `2015 Q4 Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Reports’ said that the two telecoms companies had paid the fine. According to the commission, its activities are consistent with Section 89 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.

The section mandated NCC to “monitor all significant matters relating to the performance of all licensed telecoms service providers and publish annual reports at the end of each financial year’’. NCC explained that it had developed Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement strategies to ensure fair competition, ethical market conduct and optimal quality service in the telecom industry.

- NAN