By Esaïe Edoh
Togo’s telecom regulator, ARCEP, issued a statement last Tuesday asking local mobile operators to enable their users to unsubscribe from advertising and commercial SMS.
The call was made after consumers complained about receiving these messages too often from their operators (Togocel and Moov Africa). These complaints were collected in a satisfaction survey that the ARCEP carried out between May 30 and June 17, 2022.
Specifically, the regulator is asking that operators “allow each customer to choose to no longer receive advertising or commercial messages on mobile via a USSD code and to add at the end of every advertising or commercial message a USSD code that can be used to let the operator know they do not wish to receive such messages anymore.”
Under their specifications, operators must allow customers to deactivate mass-targeted ad or commercial messages, according to the ARCEP.
