...Special 2023 End of Year Activities Held In Grand Style
…Meeting Tantamount To Mini Re-Union As Jubilation Galore!
…ATCIS Demand Commensurate Sservice Quality With Their Money
The National President of the Association of Telephone, Cable Tv and Internet Subscribers of Nigeria (ATCIS), Hon. Sina Bilesanmi has urged subscribers to keep their passwords away from intruder.
Bilesanmi said this, while briefing journalists to mark end of year activities of the organisation for the year 2023 tagged: “ATCIS-Nigeria 8Th Edition Press Briefing” on Wednesday December 20 in Lagos.
“ATCIS took it upon itself that the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and NPC should do a lot of collaborations. I will personally challenge everyone to keep your password or anything you are using online. Too much exposure of it could give hackers opportunity to invade your subscription online, your friends or son could be sent to withdraw money for you, but I assure over 200 million Nigerians and over 159 million internet subscribers that this body is there for you to carryout a lot of advocacy,” he said.
Bilesanmi then appealed to Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to prevail on the authorities of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja to grant approval to telcos to build a more resilient network.
According to Bilesanmi, for almost a decade, successive administrations in the FCT have refused to grant approval to telcos to build infrastructure. He said: “FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike should please look at this critical issue and address it with necessary urgency.
“ATCIS-NIGERIA, as a group, is aware of the operating challenges, but we demand commensurate service quality with our money. Three telecoms companies; MTN, Airtel and Mafab have rolled out services on the fifth generation (5G) technology in the country. While the first appears to be making an impact, not much has been heard from the other two, especially Mafab which was launched in Abuja and later Lagos.
“5G is no doubt expensive and it appears to be designed only for the rich and privileged. “We say this because the cost of acquiring compatible devices are very punitive. For instance, a 5G router goes for as high as N50,000 in a country where the legislated minimum wage has remained N30,000.
“We therefore appeal to the Federal Government to intervene on pay TV services which have consistently attracted hike in tariffs, we say it’s not in the best interest of our members.”
Speaking about ICT, the ATCIS President stated that anything that concerns the association won’t hesitate to allow government know about anything that concerns ICT.
While saying that they have no power to hold the government to ransom, he said that this is just an advocacy, which he said is just to advise the government on how telecoms subscribers could get more benefits from the system.
According to Bilesanmi: “subscribers buy recharge cards, but that ATCIS has injected not less than N1.3 trillion into the nation’s economy through the telecoms sector”. This, according to him, should make telecoms firms key in so that through collaborations, they could do better, saying that there’s no way they could increase without the association.
Hon. Bilesanmi emphasised that ATCIS would not allow what happened to Multichoice repeat itself, which he said did not treat members of the association well. He said that this was why he told his members to withdraw from the services of Multichoice, adding that they lost almost 5 million subscribers in the process.
Bilesanmi was quoted as: “ATCIS has done many advocacy with the support of Nigerian Students Association. “We locked up Multichoice offices, though locking up their offices was not the solution. Our challenge right now is the National Assembly. The federal government should break that monopoly, that’s why the satellite of the NCC would be coming soon. This would enable subscribers to view 40 to 50 channels free of charge. This is what we are waiting for, the government should key into our association for us to project their information.
“Multichoice, being a monopolist in the sub-sector of the broadcast industry, has continued to hike its subscription fees unapologetically in Nigeria. “The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) should borrowed a leaf from the NCC, which has a consumer affairs department and has made the protection of consumers its priority.
“It’s unclear if the NBC’s sphere of supervision extends to that of the pay TV industry because if it does, the South African operator will not be taking everyone for a ride hiding under the excuse of increase in content costs,” he said.
Bilesanmi stressed that they had sought the introduction of the GSM payment model, but that they said they lacked the technology to do so. According to him: “since the company said it cannot implement it, just like the two South African companies, MTN and Econet Wireless, said per second billing was a mirage then until Globacom came to the scene, we passionately appeal to President Tinubu to look critically into how to break this monopoly.”
He urged the government to create a level playing field, saying that no operator must be allowed to become too powerful.
He however, advised the federal government to set up a committee to examine why attempts by indigenous operators to go into the pay TV industry has always been frustrated.
“We demand for genuine liberalisation of the sector. We demand that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) should beam its searchlight on the pay TV sector!
Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau at
“For instance, telecom subscribers should be able to roll over their subscriptions. Remember there was also a time in the history of GSM telephony in Nigeria when subscription was tied to a limited number of days.
“Whatever cash by way of airtime a subscriber had on his or her mobile phone was tied to a specific validity period. Due to the economic hardships occasioned by bold decisions, we pay TV subscribers demand a regime of roll over of our subscription. If any of our members subscribes and he or she is unable use it, such a member should be able to use it any time he or she is available,” he said.
ATCIS workaholic President stated that the Association of Telephone, Cable Tv and Internet Subscribers of Nigeria (ATCIS-Nigeria) is the only leading telecoms subscribers advocacy body with over 223 million memberships and 254 National/States, with different professionals across 36 states within the six geopolitical zone.
He added that it was established in August 2015 with Reg CACA/IT/N090152, with a mission to promote mutual co-existence, fair play, defend the right among subscribers by endorsing and ensuring good products and network service delivery from network operators and service providers to our Corporate and individual members, while providing a platform to advance the right of Telephone, Cable TV and Internet subscribers throughout Nigeria.
“Going into the new year, we will sustain our advocacy campaign against all anti-subscribers and exploitative practices. “We shall do this with the collaboration with you gentlemen of the fourth estate of the realm and government agencies,” he said.
Bilesanmi express his appreciation and gratitude to the management of 9mobile for respecting business etiquette as they aligned to the organization planning strategies projection by keeping to their words, according to ATCIS President: “9nobole promised to be present, they showed up and also supported us”!