NCC to hold stakeholders meeting on new telecoms regulations Oct 5

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it will hold a virtual meeting with stakeholders on revised regulatory instruments in the telecommunications industry.

In a recent statement signed by Okechuku Adinde, NCC director of public affairs, the draft regulatory instruments include registration of telephone subscribers regulations; SIM replacement and spectrum trading guidelines.

The commission said the event would hold on October 5, 2021, by 11 am.

“Interested stakeholders are by this notice invited to make written submissions on the subject and participate in the Public Inquiries,” the statement reads.

“All submissions must reach the Commission on or before Friday, September 24, 2021, and should be addressed to: The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Plot 423, Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja. ATTN: Director, Legal and Regulatory Services.”

Some of the updated rules under the registration of telephone subscribers regulations include: “A licensee (provider of communication services that utilises a subscription medium in Nigeria) who fails to verify and validate biometric, national identity number (NIN) and other personal information before activation is liable to a penalty of N200,000 for each subscription medium in breach of these requirements.

“Any licensee who activates or fails to deactivate a subscription medium in violation of any provision of these Regulations is liable to a penalty of N200,000.00 for each unregistered but activated subscription medium.”

For the subscriber identity module (SIM) replacement guideline, all network service providers must keep a register of all SIM replacements undertaken by it for not less than two years — no longer than 12 months.

Meanwhile, the spectrum trading (transfer of right to use the spectrum) guideline states that “both the Seller and Buyer must be in good regulatory and financial standing with the Commission consistently for a minimum of three (3) years prior to the time of trading.

“The Seller has held the Spectrum for a minimum of 1 year (against two years in the previous guideline).

“A trade application form (TAF) submitted to the Commission will be duly evaluated and the decision of the Commission will be conveyed to the Applicant within 45 days (no longer 30 days) of submitting a complete TAF to the Commission.

“For trading of Spectrum acquired through the administrative process, the Seller shall, in addition, pay to the Commission 70% (previously 60 percent) of the Net Proceeds of the transaction.

“The Commission shall enforce the USE-IT OR LOSE-IT policy provision as contained in the General Conditions for Spectrum Licence.”