MTN violated industry rules so we ordered them to suspend data zone bundle – NCA

The National Communication Authority has justified its directive to MTN to suspend its data zone bundle product.

Mr Joe Anokye, director-general of the NCA told journalists at a press conference on Wednesday, 26 April 2023 in Accra that the telco giant 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 MTN data zone bundle, the 24-hour data bundle for the various data allocations. 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 has reviewed its product and submitted it for approval.

Meanwhile, the NCA has warned that some 11 million mobile phone users who are still yet to register their SIM cards have up to the end of May 2023 to do so or get their numbers deactivated.

The affected cards include those owned by subscribers (diplomats, refugees, Ghanaians on duty outside the jurisdiction, partly-registered SIMs, subscribers with Ghana card and those without Ghana card) who were exempted from the registration exercise.

Mr Anokye said at the same press event: “One of the things to note is that active mass SIM registration for existing SIMs is coming to a close and, as mentioned earlier, we have about 11 million SIMs which are yet to begin the registration process”.

“These subscribers have up to the end of May 2023 to complete their SIM registration or have their SIMs deactivated from the network”, Mr Anokye warned.

The NCA also disclaimed assertions that the data of subscribers have been compromised.

“We wish to assure the general public that the SIM database has not been breached”, Mr Anokye said.

“In the first place, there has been no unauthorized 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 unauthorized access to the SIM registration database”.