Call masking drops by 40% – NCC

Yetunde Akinloye, Director Legal Services, Nigerian Communications Commission, on Thursday said that “call masking’’ had dropped by 40 per cent.
Akinloye made this known during the 85th Edition of the Telecom Consumer Parliament Forum held in Lagos with the theme: “Overcoming Challenges of Call Masking: Task ahead for the Telecoms Industry”.
She said that call masking is basically when an international call is terminated in Nigeria as a local number.
Akinloye said that call masking was a worrisome development that constituted serious challenges not only to the telecoms industry but also posed security threats to the entire country.
She noted that because of the serious challenges posed by call masking, the commission was doing everything in its power to curb the menace.
Akinloye noted that SIM boxing, which was also used for illegal calls, had also reduced by 20 per cent.
She explained that SIM boxing were electronic boxes loaded with SIM numbers and had the capacity to receive and transmit calls undetected.
She said: “The commission has ensured that this menace reduces drastically.”
Also speaking, the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said that concrete steps had been taken to address the issue of call masking, call refilling and SIM boxing.
Danbatta was represented by Felicia Onwuegbuchulam, Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, NCC.
He said that the commission was working to ensure that mobile networks were used for call masking.
He said: “We are embarking on continuous compliance; monitoring and enforcement activities; to detect victims of call masking, SIM boxing, hand investigate channels used to commit the illegality.
“The commission also believes that tightening of SIM registration processes across all networks will curb SIM boxing as well as address the security issues around fraudulently-registered SIMs.
“We are also in the process of choosing the best from a list of the solutions used in other countries to block the devices, track and apprehend the culprits.”
Danbatta said that because of the negative impact of call masking practice on national security and consumer experience, the commission was ready to deal with any of the licensees implicated in the scam.