NAN-H-82
Messages
By Constance Athekame
Abuja, Jan. 10, 2017 (NAN) Mr Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) said telecommunications operators were working with stakeholders to stop unsolicited text messages and calls.
Adebayo made this known on Tuesday in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said, “regarding the unsolicited text message, we are working with all stakeholders.’’
“You know that we also have some people who are value added providers who purchase capacity from the operators and they use it to do other commercial transactions.
“We feel as an industry, that some of those text messages originate from them,’’ he said.
Adebayo said that telecom operators had an understanding with the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) to activate the DO Not Disturb (DND) function.
According to him, the DND function seek to prevent nuisance text messages if the subscriber considers it to so.
“So if you are getting such text messages, you will have an option of dialling in a code “the Do Not Disturb’’ and then the operator is obliged.
“ The DND will now protect you as a subscriber from receiving any of these messages going forward.
“The safety there for the subscriber is that if you do not activate the DND feature after the subscriber has requested, there is now severe sanction which the NCC has imposed on operators who decline to activate it.
“So we feel this will go a long way in protecting the subscriber and in defending the network operators in the event that such messages do not originate,’’ he said.
Adebayo said that the ICT sector performed very well in 2016 in spite of the numerous challenges it encountered, adding that there had not been a day without telecom services.
“In spite of all the challenges that we had as an industry and as a country, in spite of the infringement on our infrastructure, telecom has been the sector that performed very well in the year 2016.
“I therefore think in the face of all the problems we had, telecom had been sustained and telecom had been resilient that is why it is the industry that performed best and hope to do more in 2017,’’ he said.
He expressed appreciation to all subscribers for their patronage in 2016, adding that if there were no subscribers, the telecom sector would not exist.
He said that the challenges in the telecom industry were not isolated from the larger industry, the issue of power and security, among others.
“They are problems we faced like any other sector and we are assuring the subscribers that these problems would be overcome and we will continue to work with all stakeholders for better services,’’ Adebayo said. (NAN)
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Edited by Grace Yussuf