Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Worried by the concerns being raised by telecoms consumers in Nigeria about the rapidity of data depletion on their devices, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has charged the over 174 million telecoms subscribers in the country to constantly monitor their data usage to authenticate their consumption level.
The regulatory agency particularly enjoined the consumers to always contact their service providers to make requests for cases of discrepancies noted in their data usage.
The NCC said while the consumers are expected to contact their service providers to request for their usage history/statement where inconsistency exists in their data usage as first step, they may also escalate such issues to the commission through its toll-free number, 622, and social media platforms, especially if their requests are not satisfactorily handled.
The agency, which also made some clarifications regarding the concerns being raised by the consumers around data usage, said the need to inform the consumers on their concerns is part of its commitment to protect and appropriately inform and educate the telecom consumer on industry issues.
Making further clarifications around data speed and usage, the NCC said data speed is the speed at which data is transferred between two devices, measured in megabits per second (Mbps or mbps), stressing that given the spread of Internet services and the immense investment in the sector, data rates have continued to increase and users may be unaware of how to measure data speed.
The telecoms regulator explained further that websites such as www.fast.com also provide an easy way for consumers to measure Internet speed on any device at any location.
“The higher the data speed, the quicker pages load-downloads and uploads-occur and expectedly, the quicker data bundles are exhausted.
“So, as telecom consumers are able to do more on devices in less time, some consumers’ devices and network service providers make it possible to limit data speed to help users manage data usage better.
“In any case, most devices now include functions to measure data used by devices and it is imperative that users monitor same to authenticate data usage, such as applications left running on devices.
“Therefore, where discrepancies occur users may contact their service provider to request for their usage history/statement. If request is not dealt with satisfactorily then, users can contact NCC by calling 622 or engage the commission via its social media platforms,” it said.
The agency added that the data usage experience is a function of location, network equipment and users connected in a particular location.
