An audit carried out by the Nigerian Communications Commission has shown that MTN and Airtel topped the list of mobile network operators with the highest number of complaints from subscribers over suspicious data depletion incidences. 

The audit undertaken by the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department (CMED) of the Commission looked at the four network providers and discovered a total of 106 data depletion complaints.

Out of the 106 complaints received by the CMDE, 46 came from MTN subscribers while Airtel had 34. Glo had 19 while 9mobile, had the least complaints of seven.

The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of the NCC, Prof Garba Danbatta,  confirmed the conclusion of the audit and promised that a comprehensive report would be made public soon.

The report by the regulatory body highlighted  a number of recommendations, such as intensifying awareness campaign to educate subscribers on the need to switch off data when not in use; sensitising subscribers by the Consumer Affairs Bureau (CAB) of the NCC that the first point of complaint when aggrieved by poor service quality is their service providers; and urging the major operators to carry out checks to determine the number of its customers affected by data depletion incident.

Earlier this month, the NCC released a  statement noting the number of complaints it had received and resolved within the first quarter of 2021.

Out of the total number of complaints lodged, 1,261 complaints were lodged by MTN customers, making up 51.8 per cent of total complaints; 973 complaints from Airtel subscribers represents 32.2 per cent; 549 complaints by Globacom subscribers, makes up 18.2 per cent. 

9mobile recorded 179 complaints at 5.9 per cent, and the remaining 52 complaints came from customers of other licensees.