NCC warns telecoms’ subscribers against using unregistered SIM cards, others

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday warned subscribers of telecommunications services in the country to ensure they have their Subscribers Identity Module (SIM) cards registered before using the telephone lines.

Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau of the NCC, Felicia Onwuegbuchulam, who spoke at the 41st edition of the consumer town hall meeting in Ekpoma, Edo State, urged consumers to be wary of using unregistered SIMs, saying that use of such unregistered SIM cards is a criminal act and should be reported.

Onwuegbuchulam, represented by the NCC Deputy Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, Alhaji Ismail Adedigba, urged telecoms’ subscribers and stakeholders to be cautious while receiving international calls in the country displaying a Nigerian telephone numbers, adding that such calls are termed call masking.

According to him, call masking is criminal and should be immediately reported to the service providers for investigation of the misnomer.

The NCC said it had commenced the deployment of appropriate technology as a strategy to combat it.

However, some of the participants mainly drawn from the rural communities and university town of Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, lamented some of the activities of the network providers to include unsolicited text messages and calls, call masking/refiling, failure/refusal to roll over unused data at the expiration of data bundle by service providers.