IT News Nigeria:
Association Of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has vowed that Nigerian banks will remit every percentage deductions from mobile users for access to financial services due to its members based on documented agreement.
ALTON Chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo said this Wednesday in Lagos at a press conference to mark 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Association
According to him, it is immoral for banks to be collecting charges from telecoms subscribers without remitting operators’ part of the bargain, adding that “we cannot offer USSD free of charge because banks are charging customers.”
Mr Adebayo further said “telecoms services providers will soon invoke the law in NCC Act. There will be no discount. They will pay in retrospect. ”
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), sometimes referred to as “Quick Codes” or “Feature codes”, is a communications protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the mobile network operator’s computers. It is used to send text between a mobile phone and an application program in the network and it allows Nigerian Bank customers have access to basic financial services by simply dialling certain code. All mobile enabled bank services would terminate immediately if telecoms operators disconnect banking institutions.
ALTON also frowns at disruption and vandalism of telecoms facilities nationwide as it has become a daily occurrence.
“Public should be mindful of hate speech against telecoms industry because that leads to vandalism of facilities, inciting the public against operators,” Adebayo said.
This Association was formed in 1999, then known as the National Association of Telecom Operators (NALTO) and incorporated in the year 2000 as the Association Of License Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) a corporate body, duly registered under the laws of Federal Republic of Nigeria as an Incorporated Trustee, and officially recognized by the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Nigerian Communications Commission and other regulatory agencies as the industry body for all providers of telecommunications and subsidiary services in Nigeria. ALTON was never a subsidiary of any group of Association and neither were we at any point in time a sub-set of another Association.
