NewStats: 3,263,652 , 8,180,904 topics. Date: Saturday, 07 June 2025 at 04:34 AM 5254s

By Emma Okonji


About six telecommunications operators may lose their operational licences for their involvement in call masking and refilling, despite repeated warning from the telecoms regulatory body, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

NCC said it just concluded its investigation on call masking and refilling and discovered that six telecoms operators were involved in the illegal act that poses a national security risk and threat to the Nigerian economy, and described the act as an offence punishable by law.

In technical parlance, call masking and refilling is an attempt by callers to hide their true numbers when making calls, especially international calls which are not charged, because the caller’s identity is completely hidden on the network.

NCC’s investigation showed that the six operators were in connivance with international callers to operate masked calls in Nigeria.

The operators include: Medallion Communications, Interconnect Clearing House, Niconnx Communications Limited, Breeze Micro Limited, Solid Interconnectivity and Exchange Telecommunications Limited.

According to NCC, call masking and refilling pose a serious national security risk, since most people threaten the lives of innocent citizens through calls with masked telephones numbers that cannot be traced to them.

NCC also said most telephone numbers were masked just to defraud the economy.

The operators involved often alter local numbers to get international status in order to avoid been charged with the international rate for terminating such calls on international network, but the operators will charge the local caller with the international rate and pay at the local rate to the international network where the call was terminated.

Following the involvement of the six operators, NCC has written reminding them of the implications and the risk they face in losing their operational licences.

In one of the letters written by NCC to Medallion Communications, dated January 12, 2018, and tly signed by the Head, Legal and Regulatory Services, Yetunde Akinloye and Head, Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement, Efosa Idehen, NCC said: “The Commission, pursuant of section 45 (1) and (3) of the NCC Act 2003, hereby gives notice of its intention to suspend the interconnect exchange licence granted to your company due to your involvement in call masking and refilling and your failure to rectify the breach, despite repeated interventions by the commission.”

Part of the letter to Medallion read: The Commission has recently been inundated with complaints regarding the prevalence of cal, masking and refilling in the industry.

Considering the economic and security implications of the development, the Commission, in 2017, wrote, directing relevant licences to ensure the cessation of call masking or refilling activities on their respective networks.

The deadline for compliance with the directive was July 28, 2017. At a stakeholders meeting on August 3, 2017, it was resolved that a comprehensive investigation would be carried out by the Commission to determine the companies/licences involved in the illegal activity of call masking and refilling.

At the meeting, licences were warned to desist from the practice, while it was also agreed that identified culprits would be sanctioned as part of measures to forestall the negative impact on national interest.

Having carefully analysed all the relevant data collected in the course of investigation, the Commission has established a direct and indirect evidence against your company in the illegal and unwholesome activity of call masking and call refilling.

NCC has therefore asked the six telecoms operators to state reasons why the Commission should not suspend the said licence, and has equally asked the operators to send in their responses on or before January 31, 2018.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/01/23/six-telecoms-operators-may-lose-licences-over-call-masking-refilling/

lalasticlala

Abeg where I fit see zoom or Nitel sim

They major in minor and minor in major things... Ndi ala.

Lanceslot:
They major in minor and minor in major things... Ndi ala.

true

Hmm

Ncc is a scam. They increased international calling rate giving way to this kind scam. Skype that was very cheap to call Nigerian number from abroad during the previous tenure is now no longer affordable. All because govt want to raise funds. This is why international call now terminate as local calls . Reason is because operators are hiding real source of call to avoid exorbitant charges by NCC.

I didn't even know what call masking and refilling is before now.. and who are these people mentioned?


The operators include: Medallion Communications, Interconnect Clearing House, Niconnx Communications Limited, Breeze Micro Limited, Solid Interconnectivity and Exchange Telecommunications Limited.


My mind went straight to the likes of MTN, GLO and others.

Well,our national security is more porous than a million sieves before.

Oun pe

Usual blabbing and nothing will happen. Or is it not the incompetent NCC I know?

Lanceslot:
They major in minor and minor in major things... Ndi ala.

shit hole country

Who masking helps... Abeg help me beg Glo to return my money i no sub again.. Since 3days now I haven't been able to use the jakujaku data. I just hate you more

This is a good development.

I've seen this occur a lot of times. International calls come in like local calls and you'll be wondering why the phone number looks local. That's fraud and also poses a security risk as well.

Good job, NCC!!!

OlalekanMultiD:
Who masking helps... Abeg help me beg Glo to return my money i no sub again.. Since 3days now I haven't been able to use the jakujaku data. I just hate you more

Stale talk

Glo works perfectly everywhere I go

Durchmann:
This is a good development.

I've seen this occur a lot of times. International calls come in like local calls and you'll be wondering why the phone number looks local. That's fraud and also poses a security risk as well.

Good job, NCC!!!

Ncc is a scam. They increased international calling rate giving way to this kind scam. Skype that was very cheap to call Nigerian number from abroad during the previous tenure is now no longer affordable. All because govt want to raise funds. This is why international call now terminate as local calls . Reason is because operators are hiding real source of call to avoid exorbitant charges by NCC.

im sick of windows 10
sick of spectranet.
something jus said check your data balance.
low and behold.its on 5gig
and i made subcription 6days ago.
10k.....
data....25gig...... very low
data deceit bonus...free night browsing. yes its free.
hidden charges(if u dont restart your wifi just afta 1am...all your data na bye bye)
why 1am.....because they are lazy and useless.
a new day starts 12am.

spectranet are thieves..useless 3g network claiming 4g.

aragon4realz:
true talk
are you in south south, south east and need a website visit www.cloudlinedesigns.Com

how much

Ok

Call Masking has been more helpful to suffering Nigerians as its the reason why you call to USA is sometimes cheaper that a local call to another network..the Telcos are doing all possible to make call affordable to Nigerians but the NEC is adamant on making phone calls affordable for the rich alone ..well thanks to what's app calls we can now all initiate and terminate crisp and clear audio or video call all in the internet where NEC has no say

ClumsyFlimsy:
how much

or what'sapp us 08127403006, let talk business

in as much as we welcome the idea of trying to make them pay for the internation calls just like the way they charge we citizens, i believe hiding your number doesn't pose any threat to the national security. Hello !!!!! even in the usa and in uk you can as well hide you number to make calls, if anyone feel threaten then he or she can report to the police and the police will visit the network you are using be it mtn, glo, 9mobile to name a few. Trust me there is nothing hiding to them when it comes to making calls if u like mask your number with masquerade or eyo or igunuko, i swear they will detect the caller and trace the number if they truly want to catch the caller that hid his/her number. but i guess this is the work of the senate since kidnapping they affect them and i believe the kidnappers they always call with hiding number so dem no want make their relative die before investigation go complete to detect the caller... NICE MOVE!!

May lose ke?

MTN is culprit #1
Especially when you receive calls from/call African countries where they have coverage.

2shure:
im sick of windows 10
sick of spectranet.
something jus said check your data balance.
low and behold.its on 5gig
and i made subcription 6days ago.
10k.....
data....25gig...... very low
data deceit bonus...free night browsing. yes its free.
hidden charges(if u dont restart your wifi just afta 1am...all your data na bye bye)
why 1am.....because they are lazy and useless.
a new day starts 12am.

spectranet are thieves..useless 3g network claiming 4g.

Hey bro I can help you with the data consumption you are currently facing. It's not for free though. It's not a scam either. So if you are ready just call me 09027565685

HOW MANY WE CON GET?

2shure:
im sick of windows 10
sick of spectranet.
something jus said check your data balance.
low and behold.its on 5gig
and i made subcription 6days ago.
10k.....
data....25gig...... very low
data deceit bonus...free night browsing. yes its free.
hidden charges(if u dont restart your wifi just afta 1am...all your data na bye bye)
why 1am.....because they are lazy and useless.
a new day starts 12am.

spectranet are thieves..useless 3g network claiming 4g.

it depends on the area you live in . Places like ikeja, yaba, vi. The spectranet network is very fast.