A cross-section of mobile network subscribers have complained of huge costs incurred on mobile data provided by the mobile network operators, calling for an increase in data bundle.
The subscribers spoke in separate interviews with newsmen in Lagos on Friday. They complained that the moment they recharge their lines, the data gets depleted faster than projected . They also complained of fast depletion of data bundle after each successful purchase from the service providers. A subscriber of one of the mobile networks Mosun Adebayo, described as alarming, the rate at which her data gets depleted from her devices after visiting a few sites on the net.
Adebayo said: “As soon as I load data into my device and I visit a few websites, the data bundle finishes faster than expected, forcing me to buy a fresh data when I have the need to go online.
“Most times I watch cartoons or movies when I am less busy, and before you even say ‘Jack’, the data is finished. “The services of MTN mobile network are so good and fast but they should please do something about the data,” she pleaded.
An undergraduate,
Doris Udoh, said her monthly data bundle of 1.5 Gigabytes for N1,500, which
ought to last for a period of one month, hardly lasts two weeks before she gets
a notification.
She said she gets notified when she has reached 85 per cent
of her data usage, saying that within one or two days she would be cut off
because of insufficient data.
A Glo subscriber, Mr. Sakiru Isiaka, however, said the data usage is averagely okay, saying that he pays N1,000 which covers him one month.
A female student of the Lagos State University, Abolore Williams, called on regulatory bodies to compel Internet Service Providers to deliver unhindered internet access to customers. “I am a student and I surf the internet for my assignments and other information. It will be nice if MTN can have a data plan for students so that the data can last longer for us,” Williams said.
Williams said with more generous data, students will derive optimum benefits from the mobile telecom companies.
“It will help our studies and improve our use of the internet,” she said.
But an official of one of the telcos said that customers pay for mobile data based on the way they surf the internet, which might consume more data. “The faster the internet, the more it consumes data. There is no special preference in location or time,” the official said.