Sir,
Unsolicited And Unwarranted Calls And Text Messages To Our Phones.
I want to use this medium to bring to your notice the varieties of unsolicited calls and text messages to our phones on daily basis.
Its so sad that with the poor network we are getting from our Telecommunication providers on daily basis they have added to our frustrations by calling and sending us varieties of unsolicited text messages, ranging from their bonanzas to caller tunes, tips on healthy living, legal tips, business tips, latest news on sports, daily devotional quotes, daily news etc.
To subscribe to any of the above text messages requires you to send a reply indicating interest to a short code number sent to you depending on the Telecommunication provider. Using their gullible subscribers to make millions of naira daily. I get a minimum of 15 text messages daily from two of my Telecommunication providers, before now it was a short code number that normally calls our phones, they have noticed their subscribers don’t pick such calls anymore, their new method is to call with normal numbers and when one picks its a recorded voice call intimating you about their products and services.
Sir, this unwarranted chutzpah by our Telecommunication providers is disheartening, disparaging and humiliating to say the list. The sad news about this unsolicited calls and messages is that you don’t have to give your phone numbers out to people this days before one can receive calls and text messages, our Telecom providers have taken it upon themselves to keep our phones busy with their voice calls and text messages.
It has resulted to many people losing interest and not picking their calls and reading their text messages that are not in their contacts list. Many Nigerians have began to count their loses, I have missed an important ceremony in the past because I thought it was the normal buzz from one of my telecommunication providers, a friend of mine once missed his flight because he didn’t read the text message sent to him about the change of time in his flight, another friend of mine missed an important interview over same reasons cited above, many people are narrating their ordeal and counting their loses as well.
I read an article in a blog, www.legalfido.com, a blog about a lawyer’s daily hustle in Nigeria, the owner of the blog a lawyer, asserted that our Telecommunication companies are becoming a threat to their income over what he called “taking law practise to their clients”, whereby clients don’t need to consult and pay a lawyer for legal services, they rather pay #50 to their Telecommunication provider to get legal tips. What the lawyer said may sound funny but it is the fact.
Sir, am using this medium to appeal to you, as The Commissioner, The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) saddled with the responsibility of regulating the activities of our Telecommunication providers to use your office to investigate and call all our Telecommunication service providers to order.
Sir, to tell you how bad it has become, I have been receiving a particular text message minimum of 5 times in a day for the past 5 days now from one of my Telecommunication providers.
I am not totally against their products and services being advertised, what am against is the channel and frequency at which they send these their products and services to our phones on daily basis. They should find other means of advertising their various services instead of disturbing our phones with their unsolicited calls and text messages.
Sir, you will be saving Nigerians from inconveniences and exploitations from all the Telecommunication companies in Nigeria by calling them to order, all of them are guilty of the same offence. If these unsolicited calls and text messages can’t be stopped entirely they should be regulated or modulated.
I hope this open letter will be given preferential consideration as I await your urgent response and action towards these Telecommunication companies.
Concerned Telecommunication Subscriber.
Joe Onwukeme.
