The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has fined MTN Nigeria N1.04 trillion for alleged breach of subscriber identity module (SIM) registration rules. MTN allegedly pre-registered SIM cards in its systems which made it impossible to verify the personal details of subscribers, thereby compromising national security.
NCC Director, Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, said MTN was discovered to be harbouring about 5.2million defective SIM cards on its network which it failed to deactivate.
President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Lanre Ajayi, described the fine as “inappropriate”, noting that a fine should measure up to the offence.
Last month, NCC sanctioned the four leading telecom operators including MTN for having pre-registered SIM cards in their systems. Others are Airtel Nigeria, Globacom Nigeria and Etisalat Nigeria which along with MTN were asked to pay N120.4 million for failing to fully comply with the commission’s directive to deactivate pre-registered and defective customer SIM cards.
While MTN, which controls over 62 million subscribers, was asked to pay N102.2 million then; Globacom was slammed with N7.4 million; Etisalat N7 million and Airtel N3.8 million. NCC insists that the practice of using biometrics for SIM card verification not only works as a proof of ownership credential, but it also creates a sense of accountability among SIM card owners to not use their mobile phones in any kind of criminal activities.
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