MTN vs NCC: If I were the judge

by Dr. Abubakar Suleiman

I have been forced to setup this imaginary court to hear the suit filed by MTN against the telecoms regulator (NCC) by the conversation I had with some MTN customer service personnel and my SIM validation experiences.  I don’t know how this SIM registration experience has been for you but if I ever have to preside over that case, my SIM registration, validation and revalidation will cause MTN loss the case. To justify my bias, I hereby relate my five times experience.

Sometime in or around September, 2011, my friend Fred picked me from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and informed me that the next day was the deadline for all MTN users to register their SIM or their lines shall be blocked. So he took me to a registration center at Shoprite Lekki and I registered both my SIM and my wife’s. Despite my apprehension about the method of registration, where you register with one attendant and another does the data capturing, I was still pleased that MTN was doing what they ought to have done since.

Then in 2012, I had to change my phone and in the process, the SIM went bad. Somehow, I was to contact MTN and when I did, I was shocked when they told me that the number was not registered in my name. I spoke with the MTN operator and when I gave her my bio data, she confirmed that the data I gave was for another telephone number. I just recalled the mess that took place at Shoprite, Lekki. She claimed to have corrected the anomaly and that the number had been registered in my name.

In 2014, I bought Etisalat SIM and while I was registering it at Aminu Kano Crescent, Abuja, I curiously asked if all the networks really use the information. When I got a strong affirmation that they do, I went to the MTN center by K-City Plaza. Surprisingly, my phone was not registered in my name and so I had to start the process of SIM registration all over again. All the above registration nor validation exercises did not annoy or irritate me like the last two that happened after NCC has slammed the N1.04tr fine on the telecoms firm. The fine was for its failure to fully deactivate subscribers with unregistered and incomplete Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) cards details within the stipulated time.

On the21st December, 2015, I got SMS to be at A-Class Park on 22^nd December, 2015 to revalidate my SIM once again. After silently grumbling and cursing MTN, I did go and my SIM was revalidated. I was told to send ‘STATUS’ to 799 and a short while later, I got confirmation that my SIM validation was successful. Again I was told to dial *559*40# to claim N2000 bonus. I dialed the number and I got notice of only N1000 bonus instead of N2000. I went back to the operators at A-Class Park to complain that I got only N1000 bonus instead of N2000 and they told me not to worry as I will get the remaining bonus later.

However, instead of getting a balance of N1000, the N1000 bonus I was given at A-Class Park disappeared and all my calls was charged from my own money. So I called the MTN Customer Service Center to complain. Surprisingly, the operator told me that my call plan excludes me from enjoying any bonus. I argued that when the operator at A-Class Park told me to dial *559*40#, he didn’t tell me of any call plan and moreover, when the network sent me a message that I had N1000 bonus, they too never mentioned and call plan so what was he talking about? He responded that there was nothing he could do. A day after this encounter, my phone rang and the person at the other end introduced herself as being from MTN and wants to have my feedback on the validation exercise. I’ll leave you to guess my discussion with her but the bottom line was that she informed me that I was entitled to the bonus and she’ll make sure I got it.

Trust MTN not to disappoint me because I didn’t get the bonus but I got another SMS and Christmas message on the 25th December to be at A-Class Park on the 26th December to REVALIDATE my SIM (yes revalidate again). So I called the MTN customer service again to ask why I’m invited to revalidate my SIM one week after the last one. His response was “it’s not our fault, it is NCC that insist that we do it again”. What a lame excuse for MTN’s inefficiency.

However, I went back to A-Class Park and I did the revalidation again. When I also asked at A-Class why I was called just one week after the last one, they also blamed NCC. Even though all the other MTN customers I met have done this same registration at least more than twice, they still think it was the fault of NCC that caused it. For a company that prides itself as having the widest network and which controls 43 per cent of the country’s telecommunications market in Nigeria, it should bury its head in shame for not being able to conduct the simple exercise of validating SIMs and all it is thinking is that ‘it not our fault’. Are they the only network in Nigeria? Why are customers of the other networks subjected to this harrowing experience of SIM validation and revalidation?

So haven gone through this experience and considering that I didn’t get that N1000 or N2000 bonus, if I was the Judge in the case of MTN vs. NCC, here would have been my judgment. “Haven gone through your submission, I have decided to throw out your case and you MTN should quickly pay the N1.04 tr fine imposed on you. And you have no grounds for appeal”. If you were the Judge, how would you judge this case?

Dr. Suleiman ([email protected]) wrote from Abuja