MTN has already paid millions in Nigerian fines, with more expected
by Gareth van Zyl,
2015-11-24 11:00:23.0
APART from facing a $5.2bn fine in Nigeria, mobile network MTN has this year already paid millions of rand in other penalties, according to regulators.
MTN announced in October that it has been fined $5.2bn by the Nigerian Communications Commission for failing to disconnect up to 5-million unregistered SIM cards in that country.
The mobile network is in talks with the regulator about the mega fine, which has been described as the world’s largest by Denmark-based Strand Consult. MTN is Nigeria's biggest mobile network with more than 60-million subscribers.
But MTN has been hit with other multimillion-naira fines between July and September this year, according to the regulator’s compliance monitoring and enforcement activities report for the third quarter in 2015.
The report outlines how the watchdog "sanctioned four mobile network operators, namely MTN, Airtel, Globacom and EMTS (Etisalat) a total sum of 40-million naira (R2.8m) for sales of pre-registered SIM cards".
For this infringement, MTN was fined 21.8-million naira (R1.5m), Airtel 3.8-million naira (R270,000), Globacom 7.4-million naira (R530,000) and Etisalat 7-million (R500,000).
The regulator, in its document, said the "operators have since paid the above amounts".
The regulator further fined MTN Nigeria 80.4-million naira (R5.7m) in the quarter "for failure to deactivate a total of 420 MSISDN that were incomplete and improperly registered". MSISDNs are telephone numbers linked to SIM cards and the penalty for this breach echoes that of the $5.2bn fine MTN received for failing to disconnect 5-million unregistered SIMs.
The regulator said MTN Nigeria Communications had paid this fine as well.
MTN was contacted for comment on these fines but the company had not yet responded to questions.
Upcoming sanctions
The regulator, in its quarterly compliance monitoring and enforcement activities report, has also issued a "notice of intention to sanction" service providers over other infringements such as data bundle depletions and mobile number portability violations.
It explained in the report that MTN was found to comply with regulations about notifying subscribers via SMS about their data bundles being depleted before the due date. However, MTN "failed to highlight the tariff rate for PAYG (pay-as-you-go) billing".
"In addition, data service is not suspended on depletion of the data bundle account even without an authorisation via an SMS from the subscriber," the regulator said of MTN.
In terms of mobile number portability, MTN is set to be slapped with "timer" fines regarding porting numbers. The regulator said it required "validation and deactivation responses" regarding porting to have timelines of two hours and one hour respectively.
The regulator said MTN incurred a "timer deactivation violation" regarding a corporate port request of more than 109 lines belonging to Nigerian Breweries.
"The company had initiated a corporate port out request from MTN to Glo via lead MSISDN: 07036735494 on August 11 2015 at 1.20pm but was partially completed as at 11.22am on August 14 2015."
"As a result, these subscribers were not … able to receive calls from MTN subscribers," the regulator said.
Another four numbers were also not ported according to the necessary timelines by MTN, it said.
Other African fines
MTN is not only experiencing problems in Nigeria when it comes to fines.
Last week, it was reported that MTN had been slapped with a Ugandan court order to pay $662,000 in damages for anticompetitive behaviour.
This fine came amid a dispute between MTN and Uganda money transfer service EzeeMoney over a telephone lines and internet contract.
MTN was accused of being anticompetitive by allegedly cancelling the contract as MTN has its own mobile money service in that country.
Fin24 understands, though, that MTN has argued it migrated EzeeMoney’s contract from prepaid to postpaid because of a lack of call volumes.
MTN plans to appeal the court decision, a spokesperson said last week.
Fin24
A man passes an MTN board in Lagos, Nigeria. Picture: AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI
APART from facing a $5.2bn fine in Nigeria, mobile network MTN has this year already paid millions of rand in other penalties, according to regulators.
MTN announced in October that it has been fined $5.2bn by the Nigerian Communications Commission for failing to disconnect up to 5-million unregistered SIM cards in that country.
The mobile network is in talks with the regulator about the mega fine, which has been described as the world’s largest by Denmark-based Strand Consult. MTN is Nigeria's biggest mobile network with more than 60-million subscribers.
But MTN has been hit with other multimillion-naira fines between July and September this year, according to the regulator’s compliance monitoring and enforcement activities report for the third quarter in 2015.
The report outlines how the watchdog "sanctioned four mobile network operators, namely MTN, Airtel, Globacom and EMTS (Etisalat) a total sum of 40-million naira (R2.8m) for sales of pre-registered SIM cards".
For this infringement, MTN was fined 21.8-million naira (R1.5m), Airtel 3.8-million naira (R270,000), Globacom 7.4-million naira (R530,000) and Etisalat 7-million (R500,000).
The regulator, in its document, said the "operators have since paid the above amounts".
The regulator further fined MTN Nigeria 80.4-million naira (R5.7m) in the quarter "for failure to deactivate a total of 420 MSISDN that were incomplete and improperly registered". MSISDNs are telephone numbers linked to SIM cards and the penalty for this breach echoes that of the $5.2bn fine MTN received for failing to disconnect 5-million unregistered SIMs.
The regulator said MTN Nigeria Communications had paid this fine as well.
MTN was contacted for comment on these fines but the company had not yet responded to questions.
Upcoming sanctions
The regulator, in its quarterly compliance monitoring and enforcement activities report, has also issued a "notice of intention to sanction" service providers over other infringements such as data bundle depletions and mobile number portability violations.
It explained in the report that MTN was found to comply with regulations about notifying subscribers via SMS about their data bundles being depleted before the due date. However, MTN "failed to highlight the tariff rate for PAYG (pay-as-you-go) billing".
"In addition, data service is not suspended on depletion of the data bundle account even without an authorisation via an SMS from the subscriber," the regulator said of MTN.
In terms of mobile number portability, MTN is set to be slapped with "timer" fines regarding porting numbers. The regulator said it required "validation and deactivation responses" regarding porting to have timelines of two hours and one hour respectively.
The regulator said MTN incurred a "timer deactivation violation" regarding a corporate port request of more than 109 lines belonging to Nigerian Breweries.
"The company had initiated a corporate port out request from MTN to Glo via lead MSISDN: 07036735494 on August 11 2015 at 1.20pm but was partially completed as at 11.22am on August 14 2015."
"As a result, these subscribers were not … able to receive calls from MTN subscribers," the regulator said.
Another four numbers were also not ported according to the necessary timelines by MTN, it said.
Other African fines
MTN is not only experiencing problems in Nigeria when it comes to fines.
Last week, it was reported that MTN had been slapped with a Ugandan court order to pay $662,000 in damages for anticompetitive behaviour.
This fine came amid a dispute between MTN and Uganda money transfer service EzeeMoney over a telephone lines and internet contract.
MTN was accused of being anticompetitive by allegedly cancelling the contract as MTN has its own mobile money service in that country.
Fin24 understands, though, that MTN has argued it migrated EzeeMoney’s contract from prepaid to postpaid because of a lack of call volumes.
MTN plans to appeal the court decision, a spokesperson said last week.
Fin24
Data supplied by Profile Data
Data supplied by Profile Data
Data supplied by Profile Data
Data supplied by Profile Data