Ghana's regulator tackles telco spam messages

Ghana's National Communication Authority (NCA) has called for public comment on new Draft Guidelines for the Management of Network Promotional Messages in an attempt to better regulate messages that can be perceived as spam.

The NCA said the primary objectives of these guidelines are to establish industry standards and requirements for transmitting network promotional messages, ensuring such messages are sent transparently, ethically and legally.

Additionally, the NCA said the guidelines aim to protect consumer rights by providing clear opt-in and opt-out mechanisms, regulating promotional messages' frequency and timing and harmonizing sender identification names and shortcodes for better consumer recognition.

The NCA said the public commentary consultation period is ongoing and will conclude on September 19, 2024. (Source: Image by wirestock on Freepik)

"The NCA values public involvement and transparency in regulating the electronic communications industry, recognizing the public's interest in proper regulation," the NCA said.

Furthermore, the NCA said all responses/comments should be electronically sent to its website as an email attachment, in Microsoft Word format.

Regulator making waves

The call for comments comes at a time when the Ghanaian regulator has been in the news addressing matters involving the country's telecom operators. Just last month, the watchdog addressed Internet and mobile data pricing as well as MTN Ghana being declared a Significant Market Power (SMP).

Furthermore, in attempts to level the playing field in the country's telecommunications industry, in July 2023, the NCA introduced technology neutrality to tackle non-SMP concerns in the telco industry.

Statistics from market research company Omdia, a sister company of Connecting Africa, show that MTN Ghana is the most dominant operator in the country, with an estimated 27.9 million mobile users at the end of the second quarter of 2024.

The second biggest mobile operator in the country, Telecel Group almost had 8.9 million mobile users around the same time.

Meanwhile AT Ghana had 5.1 million users, leaving Glo Mobile with just an estimated 344,340 users around the same time.

Related posts:

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa