MTN Engages Abuja’s Subscribers, Seeks Solutions To Arbitrary Data Depletion
To find possible solutions to arbitrary data depletion, MTN Nigeria has engaged Abuja subscribers and other telecommunications consumers in a public forum code-named “Data on Trial”.
The forum, held in Abuja on Monday, was designed in a courtroom style, with participants drawn from subscribers, consumer advocates, and senior MTN executives.
Karl Toriola, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, and Vice President, Francophone Africa, MTN Group, said “Data on Trial” was part of the company’s efforts to better educate its telecommunications service subscribers and consumers on data usage.
He also stated that the forum provides a platform for telecommunications service consumers to gain more insights on how to manage their devices and get better value.
Toriola further explained that the issue of data arbitrarily disappearing is one of the challenges of telecommunications services that needs more education than sentiment to handle.
He stated that MTN has always lived up to its responsibilities in terms of addressing consumers’ discomfort, their perception of disappearing data, and how their data is consumed without their knowledge.
He said, “And one thing I will give our management team and MTN credit for is the courage to stand up, to be interrogated, to be vulnerable, and to listen to customers. So I thank all of you, um, for being part of this process.
”This process is about building trust; it’s about building knowledge, and it’s about building transparency about what goes on in our industry and the life-critical services that we provide to you, our consumers”.
Also speaking, Mike Ndukwe, General Manager, Network Performance and Quality Assurance, MTN, explained that there are many activities which consumers engage in with their devices that deplete data without knowing it.
Ndukwe said, ” I spoke about high-resolution videos and how they consume more data on 4G and 5G. As I mentioned, these are the data service technologies and resolution matters. So, for example, if you look at a 15-second TikTok video, if you watch a 15-second TikTok video in standard definition, you’re using about 2 to 3 megabytes, basically.
“But once you watch that same video in high definition, it could go as high as 15 MB. And then there’s also the auto-play feature in most of these apps. So they’re optimised: immediately after the first video finishes playing, the other one loads, and all that. And as it’s loading and playing, your data is actually being depleted. And then 4G, 5G- this enables higher quality.
