Nigeria is one of the few emerging markets where certain strange terms still hold sway. I remember my conversation with the Founder of AppsAfrica.com, Andrew Fassnidge, during one of his visits to Nigeria. He saw me proudly holding my MiFi device and asked what I was holding as he had never seen anything like that in the United Kingdom. I had to find a way to explain and by the time I was done, he was confused the more especially when I had to explain the issue of data validity.
Personally, I have found my self racing to use up data at the end of a billing period. This has happened to me on a number of occasions. Now, because I rely on multiple service providers, there is no month my remaining data is not deleted at the end of a billing period, making me a perpetual victim to this not-too-progressive policy. I believe that this also describes the dilemma of a few other Nigerians.
This is one issue I believe ought be solved very urgently, today, if possible, because the truth is that it is totally unfair for customers to be denied the right to use their data, just because it exceeded a specific date. While it is okay for telecoms operators to enforce a date, that is 30 days within which a customer should use the data bought, I think it is unfair not to roll over the unused data to the new billing period.
So the question is, how much longer will we stand by and watch service providers deny their customers the full benefit of using up their data, which they paid for, all in the name of validity period?
The reality is that the Nigerian telecommunications industry has come a long way indeed and within this period, a number of anti-customer policies have had to be done away with. Once upon a time, operators enforced data validity on voice services, such that after a customer recharges his or her phone, they are given a number of days within which to consume the available airtime, or else, they will not be able to receive calls afterwards unless recharge.
Fast forward to today, that idea, wherever it came from, is dead and buried. What you find today is that Telcos are working hard to reduce voice rates for both on-net and off-net calls. Even the “big boy” of the industry is literally begging customers not to leave its network, because the heat is on. — Finish Reading on the Punch Website
