Why Electronic Communication Service Consumers Are So Vulnerable

This morning you woke up without an alarm. Another day in Accra.

This Accra. Twitter says “Accra is stay by plan”, and you know it.

The trotro is calm. Unlike yesterday, you have not fought with other passengers for a seat. You did not haggle over the fare. You think the trotro driver should know you by now. But he’s very salty and his mate is full of unhealthy agility. Like everyone this morning, you sit and stare, unable to dream. Hope slips through your fingers and bills fill your palms instead. Like everyone who says the “system is hard” whatever that means, you are angry – angry in the morning. Angry without provocation. Your phone vibrates and then beeps. You search your pocket. “It’s the wrong one”, you mutter to yourself. You search the other. It’s there. Someday, you’ll buy an Iphone. You can dream too.

MOMO, the message says. You open it. “Recharge MORE and save BIG this month. Enjoy 100% bonus when you buy airtime through Momo”. You seethe and saliva foams at the edges of your mouth. Yesterday, it was “It’s raining Cash on MOMO. Achieve your weekly MOMO target and earn points and stand the chance to win amazing CASH prices. Your target this week is Ghs 500”.

It’s not twelve yet, but you are already thinking of lunch. You don’t know whether you want to pursue it or not. It’s as if whenever the Bank of Ghana raises the basis points, the price of your beloved Gob3 goes up. It’s not even the 20th but your salary is finished. Now your head is an entire spreadsheet full of tables, diagrams, charts, you name it. All the while you stare blankly at the painting before you. It’s similar to the one you saw at the National Museum, “To Your Health and Ours”, the inscription read. However, it’s as if the painting that you stare at– the multicolor welcome party – is not there. Instead, it’s a balance sheet before you. Evidently, you are struggling. "Thomas!" Your boss screams. You’ve been inattentive, again, for the umpteenth time. Your boss dresses you down while you stand. Then you sit, emasculated, all ruffled up like a bird caught in the rain. Your phone vibrates against the smoothness of the polished hardwood. Another beep. You open it. Fingers trembling. “Out of credit? We’ve got a plan for you! Borrow airtime in just a second. Simple dial….”

“Oh God!” you sigh in utter exasperation. Is it not enough? That you owe your landlord and three others? Why is your network begging you to become its debtor? What crime have you committed? Which remote ancestor’s sin are you paying for? You close your eyes and try to breathe. Another beep. “The rains are here. Shops may be closed and roads will be muddy. Buy airtime from the comfort of your home anytime with XXX cash and enjoy 100% bonus for FREE…” At this point, you want to weep.

You begin to curse… You have rights. You have a right not to be disturbed, or bothered by useless messages. Who allows these telcos to send you all these messages! They should know you have human agency. You have choice. You have privacy!!...

“It’s no use”, your inner man says. “You’re just a powerless young man”.

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We’ve all found ourselves in situations similar to the one described above. Telcos consistently bombard us with tons of messages we find irritating, unwarranted and exhausting. Clearly, these are experiences that damage consumer/customer satisfaction. In a regulated industry like telecommunications, the regulator must act within the confines of the law to protect consumers.

Why must consumers be protected in the first place? The answer is simple. In a liberalized industry, suppliers often have enormous access to capital, resources and data which their consumers individually cannot access. Thus, there is a capital and information asymmetry which makes suppliers more powerful because they can dictate the rules of the industry including prices and terms of service provision to the detriment of consumers. When the telecommunications industry was state monopolized and offered as a service, talk about consumer protection might have, arguably, been subdued. However, since the 90s, Ghana’s telecommunications industry, like other industries in the economy has been forced to privatize. The industry is now dominated by private companies providing all sorts of services. The body of regulatory laws too, constitutes and continues to reflect a neo-liberal legal order that places emphasis on investments and profits. Though these laws seem to offer some protection to consumers, it is clear that some of these protections have been compromised. A clear case of this can be found in the rules that regulate the sending of unsolicited electronic communications to a consumer as found in Ghana’s Electronic Transactions Act of 2008.

In the first place, the Act goes on… unsolicited communication should not be sent to a consumer without obtaining the consumer’s prior consent. In other words, the sender must confirm whether or not the recipient wants to receive the communication before it is made. Even when the communication is sent, there are additional measures that must be complied with, notably the option to cancel one’s subscription to a mailing list. Sounds good right?

Unfortunately, we deflate the optimism here. Telcos are exempt from the heavy requirements other persons must comply with before/or after sending any form of unsolicited electronic communication. In fact, the Act provides, “Except in the case of a notice sent by an electronic communications provider to a customer in relation to the service, a person shall not send unsolicited electronic communications to a consumer without obtaining the prior consent of the consumer” (section 50). Once it relates to a ‘service’, no restrictions are imposed on telcos. They can bombard us any how they want and we cannot do anything about it. The regulator cannot do anything. God help us both! Clearly, there is no protection for the consumer where it matters most.

Unless of course, we [customers/consumers] eat the telcos!