Antics Of Airtel And Other GSM Operators...An Appraisal

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A BRIEF PREAMBLE:
My immediate previous article on this subject delved into my travails in the hands of AIRTEL Nigeria. On the 20th of September, I had purchased and loaded N1000 credit, stylishly prevented from loading 1GB data as advertised, but advised to "dial *200#"!

And as soon as my credit level was pretentiously jerked up to N4000, such "bonus" got exhausted after just 3 hours of data usage. Pages opened without pictures. No downloads. No video streaming... bla bla bla... So, how did I use up the data?

ANALYSIS.
Having been so railroaded into browsing off-bundle, having realised that off-bundle browsing costs over N50 per MB, further analysis shows that even at N50/MB, N1000 would fetch just 20MB of data....and N4000 just 20x4=80MB of data!

At equity, it may be argued that a customer may not knowingly opt for 20MB instead of 1,000MB (1GB) of data for a value of N1,000!

Neither would an operator reasonably expect that a customer, duly informed of the intricacies of such data "packages", would willingly and knowingly settle for a 50eth (1/50) of his intended purchase for the same amount!

It must be argued that the failure of AIRTEL to provide its customers with adequate information... (even if claimed to be unintentional), is a deliberate ploy to swindle such customers! Airtel Nigeria just intentionally swindled me of my money and betrayed my trust.

THE FRAUD CUTS ACROSS BOARD!
No sooner had I pulverized my two Airtel SIM cards than I inserted my GLO SIM card....only to be confronted with a similar scenario! I purchased credit for my new Glo SIM...but cautiously so.

From my experience on the recent Aitel fraud, rather than commit thousands of naira straight into Glo data purchase, I first administered a "test dose" of N100. Such precautionary measures are extremely necessary these days that our mobile telephony companies have decided to throw dignity to the dogs en mass and embraced dishonesty.

As soon as the credit purchase was acknowledged, I received a barrage of text messages from GLO urging me to "load a minimum of N200 and dial *200# to receive a 300% bonus"! No warning preambles or suffices. No mention of "migration"! No mention of "conditions" or hidden charges!

Same format! Same fraudulent intentions! Same mindset!

You think I fell for it? How could I...when I am not a "mumu".

SLOW MOTION AND AUTO PILOT!
Another antic of our GSM data providers is to slow down their data speeds so much the user gets frustrated. And as they do this, they also program their data services to wind down rapidly in a manner akin to an autopilot! Under the pretext that android, blackberry, ios and windows platforms auto-update, these operators eat up your data so fast.

To confirm their intention to defraud, I switched by SIM card from an android phone to my HTC Touch Pro which does not auto-update, yet MTN and GLO rapidly and systematically ate up my data even when the phone was idle and switched off!

SOLUTIONS PROFERRED....
The obvious solutions reside in customer readiness to:

1. Report erring Telecoms operators to the Nigerian Telecommunications Commission, NCC.

2. Slam civil and criminal court summons at the doorsteps of such telephony companies.

3. Be cautious if not paranoid, in their dealings with our GSM operators.

4. Be brave and willing whistle-blowers when so defrauded rather than keep mum and suffer in silence.

5. Embrace alternative modes and platforms of internet access...like the (cable modem and digital)cable tv decoder option which reserves a channel for very fast broadband internet access at no extra cost. See a previous article I wrote on this subject.

More importantly, GSM operators must be prevented by the NCC from offering multiple "packages" with hidden fraudulent intents to customers.

A single USSD Code should suffice for data purchase........laced with several options on data sale and monies paid!

Dr Tosin Akindele is a medical practitioner and public affairs analyst.

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Articles by Tosin Akindele