By 
By Emmanuel Yinka Fagbenle
Advancement in technology and the rising usage of applications are some of the reasons why consumers frequently experience high data consumption, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has explained in response to consumers complaint of speedy data depletion and alleged data theft by their operators.
In addition, application updates and services that leverage on data, underscored by auto-updates and download of apps on phones over mobile data network without any sort of prompting or intervention by the user of the mobile phone, frequently trigger so-called speedy data depletion or so-alleged data thievery.
Danbatta was speaking at the monthly briefing on Short-Term Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by agencies under the Federal Ministry of Communications.
NCC makes its case at the monthly briefing on Short-Term Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by agencies under the Federal Ministry of Communications.
During the presentation by the commission to the Minister of Communications, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami and other officials of the ministry, Danbatta, explained that the experience of early data depletion and rise in data usage is not inevitably as a result of “illegal deductions” or “sharp practices” by mobile network operators (MNOs).
According to him, “some of the reasons for the rise in data consumption and depletion, which were made known by users as ‘illegal deduction’, where as a result of the “advancement in technology, which has led to the rise in applications, updates and services that leverage on data.”
The telecom regulator said, in addition to more applications that are dependent on data for operation, there has been an increase in video-based advertising contents by social media companies which in most cases are because of free services offered by the companies.
The commission also stated at the presentation that despite the ongoing regulatory efforts toward a decrease in the cost of data and improved quality of service, the driving factors in Nigeria are not entirely within the commission’s control.
He said factors such as Right of Way (RoW) issues, fibre cuts, vandalism, multiple taxations, insecurity and power outages as well as site access denial, tend to impact negatively on ability of MNOs to meet the benchmarks for service provision.
Danbatta who led a number of other senior NCC officials to the briefing, had extensive deliberations with minister on what the regulator has also been doing in critical areas of its regulatory mandate such as reduction of cost of data; stemming the tide of “illegal deduction” of data; addressing the issue of invalidly-registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards; as well as efforts in ensuring continuous compliance with the maximum two percent Call Drop Rate (CDR) directive to telecom operators on Quality of Service (QoS) delivery.
