Exclusive: VAS operators may be decommissioned over fraud – ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Telecommunications regulator in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is tinkering on decommissioning some Value Added Service (VAS) Providers in the country, reports ITREALMS.

This follows the recent NCC investigations which showed that most of the VAS providers are conniving with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to defraud unsuspecting telecom consumers.

ITREALMS investigations revealed that VAS Operators in the country cut across Value Added Services (VAS) include Call Centre services (CCS), Call Directory Services (CDS), Content Services Using Shortcodes (SNC), Prepaid Calling Services (PPC) and Special Number Services (SNS), with membership largely drawn from the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).

NCC in a official communications available to ITREALMS of intention to sanction some of the VAS operators depending on the magnitude of their involvement which is under review at Maitama-Abuja office of the regulator.

ITREALMS gathered that the sanctions could be suspension or outright decommission in the overall interests of telecom consumers.

“We wish to use this opportunity to inform the general public that the Commission may suspend or outrightly decommission some VAS platforms and services in the overall interests of consumers.

“We assure consumers that these measures will be implemented with minimal inconvenience to them, and trust that we can count on the understanding of consumers who may be affected by these measures,” official statement from NCC said in part.

Further, the Commission assured all stakeholders of continuous use of all available resources to protect the rights of consumers of telecoms services and to ensure that they get appropriate value for their interactions with service and platform providers.

Currently, ITREALMS confirms that Nigeria has some 368 VAS operators as at the time of filing this report.

These, ITREALMS also gathered comprised of Call Centre Services (CCS) - 16; Call Directory Services (CDS) -6; Content Services Using Shortcodes (SNC) - 336; Prepaid Calling Services (PPC) - 1; and Special Number Services (SNS) - 9.

Remmy Nweke/ ED, Ops

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