The National Communication Authority (NCA) has explained its directive to suspend MTN’s data zone bundle product.
Mr Joe Anokye, Director-General of the NCA told journalists at a press briefing on Wednesday, 26th April 2023 in Accra that MTN violated some regulations as a significant market player.
“MTN should not charge lower for voice, SMS, and data. MTN should not charge off-net calls. MTN has, so far, been in compliance with the directive.
However, in January 2023, the NCA took notice of the MTN data zone bundle, the 24-hour data bundle for the various data allocations after some market players raised concerns.
“NCA engaged MTN and reviewed the product. We realised that the MTN data bundle was the lowest on the market and in violation of the directive. It was directed to discontinue the service,” Mr Anokye explained.
He, however, noted that the telco giant has reviewed its product and submitted it for approval.
Meanwhile, the NCA has also warned that 11 million mobile phone users who have not registered their SIM cards have until the end of May 2023 to do so or have their numbers deactivated.
These affected cards include those owned by subscribers who were exempted from the registration exercise, such as diplomats, refugees, Ghanaians on duty outside the jurisdiction, partly-registered SIMs, subscribers with Ghana card, and those without Ghana card.
“Per the statistics, there are about 11 million active unregistered sims. If you are part of this 11 million and you are not exempted – if you are not a foreign diplomat, you are not a refugee – you will be delinked if you do not register,” he said.
Also, Mr. Anokye dissolved claims that the data of subscribers had been compromised.
“In the first place, there has been no unauthorised access to the SIM registration database”, he noted, adding: “The identified abuses of the stage one process, which have been resolved, do not amount to unauthorised access to the SIM registration database”.
“We wish to assure the general public that the SIM database has not been breached”, Mr Anokye said.
