The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued new guidelines directing telecommunication operators to enhance transparency by providing subscribers with clear and detailed information regarding charges for calls and data usage.<\/p>\n
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This directive, outlined in a statement by Reuben Muoka, NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, was released on Monday in Abuja. The guidance, titled *\u2018Guidance for the Simplification of Tariffs,\u2019* is aimed at improving consumer understanding, ensuring fairness, and fostering competition among telecom service providers.<\/p>\n
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Effective from July 29, 2024, the directive mandates that telecom operators fully disclose all components and conditions of their tariffs. According to Muoka, this guidance was developed after consultations with industry stakeholders, including Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Consumer Focus Groups, alongside extensive analysis of consumer preferences and expectations.<\/p>\n
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The NCC’s objectives with these simplification guidelines are to:<\/p>\n
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1. **Reduce Complexity**: Simplify the range of tariff plans and bundles available to consumers.<\/p>\n
2. **Ensure Transparency**: Make the promotional elements of tariff plans more transparent and fair.<\/p>\n
3. **Protect Consumers**: Provide clear and understandable tariff information, enabling consumers to make informed decisions.<\/p>\n
4. **Promote Fair Competition**: Standardize tariff structures to create a level playing field among telecom operators.<\/p>\n
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Telecom operators are also required to prominently display all relevant tariff information, including the name of the plan, pricing details, validity period, per-second charges for on-net and off-net calls, international call rates, expected data speeds, and fair usage policies.<\/p>\n
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The directive allows operators to maintain existing bonus-led tariff plans until December 31, 2024, during which time they are expected to educate and transition all subscribers to the simplified tariff plans.<\/p>\n
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Furthermore, the NCC has mandated that tariffs be communicated to subscribers in clear language and a user-friendly format, with full disclosure of a subscriber’s tariff plan via Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).<\/p>\n
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Operators are also instructed to offer stand-alone data bundles at fair prices to prevent consumers from being tied to unnecessary products. Additionally, bonuses on promotions must be stated in actual value, and access fees along with asymmetric fee structures must be eliminated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued new guidelines directing telecommunication operators to enhance transparency by providing subscribers with clear and detailed information regarding charges for calls and data usage. This directive, outlined in a statement by Reuben Muoka, NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, was released on Monday in Abuja. The guidance, titled *\u2018Guidance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":41897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41908,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41896\/revisions\/41908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}