Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has been urged by the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) to address unsolicited text message related issue squarely this year.
Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, President of NATCOMS, made the call in an interview on Monday in Lagos.
He said that,“The issue of unsolicited text message is an industry problem that NCC has to address squarely.
“We are aware of how NCC has since last year been tackling the issue of unsolicited messages, but it remained the same.
“Until heavy sanctions are meted on the operators, that is when we can have some peace.’’
Ogunbanjo, insisted that telecommunications service providers do not deactivate unsolicited messages, when subscribers send “STOP” to the code provided.
According to him, when subscribers send “STOP” to the provided code operators, they still charge them for sending the messages and continue sending the unsolicited messages.
It would be recalled that in 2016, NCC introduced the 2442 Do-Not-Disturb code.
Prof. Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman NCC, had said at various fora that the short code would enable the consumers to opt out of SMS platforms they did not subscribe to.
According to statistics from NCC, about 10,000 telecommunications consumers have activated the code as at December 2017.