THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has warned that the resurgence of call masking threatens the integrity of Nigeria’s telecom ecosystem and could distort industry revenues.
The commission reaffirmed the NCC’s zero-tolerance position on call masking. Call masking occurs when an international call is made to appear on the recipient’s phone as though it originated from a local Nigerian number.
The practice can enable operators or callers to circumvent legitimate international call termination arrangements and charges while making the call appear to be a domestic call.
The commission, rising from its 110th Board meeting, described the practice as unacceptable and a serious regulatory concern, noting that it undermines legitimate telecommunications operations and distorts industry revenues.
According to the commission, call masking also constitutes economic sabotage with the potential to adversely affect the national economy.
The Board said the NCC would work with relevant security and law enforcement agencies, as well as telecommunications industry stakeholders, to identify, prevent and eliminate call masking activities.
The development comes as the commission continues to address challenges affecting the quality and reliability of telecommunications services across the country.
At the meeting, the Board also reviewed progress on commitments by mobile network operators (MNOs) to deploy additional infrastructure to expand network coverage, capacity and quality of experience.
The commission said 8,526 of the 12,179 coverage and capacity sites committed by operators have now been deployed nationwide, representing about 70 percent of the total commitment.
The figure marks an increase from the approximately 5,000 sites reported at the commission’s previous board meeting.
However, the NCC said the improvement in infrastructure deployment has been accompanied by persistent challenges to network reliability, particularly damage to fibre infrastructure.
