Telcos refuse to backdown following order to deactivate voicemail service

Telecommunication companies in Nigeria do not have any plan to comply with the order to deactivate voicemail services given by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami.

The Chairman of ALTON, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, told newsmen that the voicemail service was a “basic system feature” that did not require the intervention of the government.

“Voicemail is a value-added service offered to all willing subscribers and those who do not want the service can always opt-out of voicemail services.

“It is a basic system feature and not one of those services requiring policy or regulatory intervention,” he said.

In response to Pantami's statement telling telcos to stop “illegal deduction” of subscribers’ data, and reduce the cost of data in the country, he said, “there are no such things as illegal deduction by any operator.”

Top on the list of demands was the classification of telecommunications infrastructure as critical national infrastructure, a development which would ensure that the facilities are protected by the government as national assets.

“We want the government to classify telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure and accord telecom cell sites, fibre optics cables and all supporting infrastructure the same level of protection being provided for critical economy infrastructure such as the oil pipelines and railway tracks,” Adebayo said.

“There are no such things as illegal deduction by any operator,” he said.