SUBSCRIBERS CAN NOW BAR UNWANTED SMS FROM TELCOS

Subscribers in the country can now heave a sigh of relief as they’ve been given the super powers to bar unsolicited messages from wherever they come from.

The powers were granted by the telecoms industry watchdog, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), who instructed all telcos in the country to implement the ‘Do-Not- Disturb’ (DND) code.


The DND code – 2442 – allows any subscriber who does not want to receive unwanted messages from the operators bar such messages.

Once the telcos implement this code, subscribers can be can be rest assured that, by simply sending STOP to 2442, none of the unsolicited messages would get into the SMS box of their phones.

A Full DND which is SMS "STOP" to 2442 does not allow the subscribers to receive any unsolicited message from the operators at all.
— ncc.gov.ng (@NgComCommission) July 3, 2016
The NCC gave all the telcos in the country until June 30, 2016 to implement the code. Huge sanctions awaits defaulting telcos.

Kudos must be given to the NCC for mustering the courage to confront the monster known as unsolicited messages. The disturbing thing however is if the telcos will comply. There are indications that there is more to the DND thingy than meets the eye – some telcos are not fully complying.

MTN might not be fully complying (they sha like to hold subscribers in their jugulars). A quick look at its dedicated DND page show subscribers will not receive unsolicited (or promotional) messages for 3rd Party services (Bulk SMS, VAS promos, etc.).

In order words, MTN will continue to send its own unsolicited (or promotional) messages to subscribers at will.

But do you blame them? In this message, NCC did not make it clear if the DND codes exempts the telcos from sending their own promotional messages.

In the case of Airtel, they seem to be complying. Its dedicated DND page didn’t say if it’ll continue to send its own promotional messages. Same with Etisalat and Glo (I guess).

Unsolicited messages can be very annoying (that’s why they’re called unsolicited in the first place). Imagine what Glo sent someone some few days ago:

"Dial *2223# and find your dream partner across world without Internet." .@GloWorld & .@GloCare, are you guys kidding me??
— Kelven (@KelvmakanjuOla) July 9, 2016
Seriously?? Thank you Glo. I already have a dream (and life) partner of my choice!

Now that the NCC has done the right thing by finding a way of fighting the monster, I expect them to really go hard on the defaulters so that subscribers can, for once, have some sanity.

After they’ve successfully tackled this, I expect them to move on to robo (or unsolicited) calls. They too can be very annoying!