Subscribers Decry Unsolicited SMSes, NCC Looks Elsewhere

Telecommunications consumers have complained about the torrential SMS marketing messages from companies that they have not directly supplied with their cell-phone numbers and want the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator to call them to order.

Voicing their displeasure at the Telecom Consumer Parliament in Lagos, subscribers said that unsolicited SMS constitute invasion of their rights to privacy.

If they expected a breather from the regulator, it did not come as the NCC did not make any pronouncement forbidding operators from sending unsolicited messages to consumers.

But operators at the parliament said the messages are targeted at product information and that since some of the subscribers are complaining, they would look into that.  

Etisalat Nigeria however claimed its messages come with opt-out choice, allowing subscribers to quickly opt not to receive future messages.

A very aggrieved subscriber while expressing his concern said: ‘What is the meaning of that nonsense? I have better things to think about, Stop sending me unsolicited messages!”.

Unsolicited texts are a modern scourge in Nigeria and there are currently no laws barring operators from bombarding consumers with text messages.

In South Africa, people who receive unwanted SMS marketing messages can report them to the Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association of SA (Waspa)

The association takes consumers’ rights to privacy very seriously and forbids its members from sending unsolicited messages to consumers whose numbers they have acquired through third-party databases