Data on Trial: MTN Says Apps Responsible for Data Depletion, not Unfair Billing  

From high-definition video and automatic downloads to the cost of powering thousands of network sites, MTN Nigeria has offered a technical and economic defence of mobile-data depletion. Yet the deeper test is whether operators and regulators can turn explanation into evidence that consumers can independently verify.

For millions of Nigerians, mobile data is no longer a discretionary purchase. It is the invisible fuel for banking, commerce, education, entertainment, remote work and everyday communication. That is why the familiar complaint that a bundle “finished too quickly” has grown beyond customer-service irritation into a serious question of household welfare, digital inclusion and brand trust.

MTN Nigeria brought that dispute into the open on Monday in Abuja with its “Data on Trial” experience, a public-engagement format designed to examine how data is consumed, measured and priced.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, urged subscribers to review and optimise their phone settings, arguing that background activity, automatic downloads and high-resolution content could consume bundles without users fully appreciating the volume involved.

He also located the pricing debate within Nigeria’s difficult operating environment, where telecommunications companies frequently provide their own power and supporting infrastructure that operators in more efficient markets can take for granted.

That explanation is technically credible—but it cannot be the final verdict. Consumers need better digital habits; operators also owe them billing systems and usage records that are sufficiently transparent to be tested.

Why faster networks can empty bundles faster

MTN’s General Manager, Network Performance and Quality Assurance, Mike Ndukwe, identified video streaming, social-media use and automatic downloads as major drivers of data consumption.

A short TikTok video, he explained, could use between two megabytes and 20 megabytes, depending on its resolution. The wider principle matters more than the individual estimate: data use is determined by the amount of content transferred, not simply the time spent online.

Modern applications are designed to minimise waiting. They preload videos, refresh feeds, synchronise photographs, download media, back up chats and update software in the background.

WhatsApp groups can automatically pull photographs and videos onto a device. Cloud services may upload large files without an obvious prompt. Video platforms can increase picture quality when they detect a faster connection.

That creates the 4G and 5G paradox. Faster networks do not arbitrarily multiply the price of a megabyte, but they enable users to consume more megabytes in less time and at higher quality. A subscriber who moves from compressed video on a weak connection to high-definition streaming on 5G may experience a much better service while seeing a bundle disappear more quickly.

Ndukwe advised customers to disable automatic media downloads, restrict background activity, turn off autoplay, reduce video resolution and allow large files to download only over Wi-Fi.

He also pointed to the MyMTN application for monitoring balances and usage, and to FibreX for customers whose consumption is better suited to fixed broadband, subject to the applicable plan conditions.

These are useful measures. But consumer education must not become a convenient transfer of responsibility from the network to the subscriber.

The cost argument

Toriola said Nigerian operators carry costs that peers in markets such as the United Kingdom do not bear to the same extent, including power generation and transportation to network sites.

He stressed that MTN deploys comparable 4G and 5G technologies and equipment to those used in Europe and the United States, despite operating within a more difficult infrastructure environment.

That cost disadvantage is real. Diesel, electricity, fibre cuts, security, site access, logistics, imported equipment and foreign-exchange exposure all shape the economics of a Nigerian telecommunications network. These pressures affect margins, capital investment and ultimately the price and quality of service.

However, the reported claim that MTN spent about ₦4.05 trillion on power in the preceding year requires clarification.

MTN Nigeria’s audited 2025 accounts reported total revenue of about ₦5.2 trillion and direct network operating costs of approximately ₦1.39 trillion. Since the quoted power figure exceeds the company’s disclosed direct network operating costs by a wide margin, it should not be repeated as an established fact until MTN identifies the period, currency, scope or metric intended.

The discrepancy does not invalidate the broader infrastructure-cost argument. It does demonstrate why corporate transparency must apply to the evidence supporting pricing claims as rigorously as it applies to explanations of customers’ data use.

A courtroom experience is not an independent audit

Peter Akpatason, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Communications, said the Abuja engagement could improve public understanding and challenge misconceptions about data prices.

He acknowledged the investment already made in telecommunications while calling for additional capital to improve service quality.

The initiative is smart reputation management. MTN is confronting a persistent consumer grievance rather than pretending it does not exist. In a sector where customers rarely see the infrastructure behind a digital service, demonstrations can reduce suspicion and show how modern applications behave.

But a company-organised hearing, however open, is not the same as an independent regulatory test.

The stronger confidence-building standard would combine consumer education with periodic third-party verification of charging systems; session-level usage records showing time and data volume; prompt alerts at meaningful consumption thresholds; simple dispute-resolution tools; and published outcomes from representative meter tests across devices, tariffs and network generations.

Subscribers should first raise unresolved billing or depletion complaints with their service provider and retain the ticket number. Where the issue is not satisfactorily resolved, the Nigerian Communications Commission provides escalation channels, including its toll-free 622 line.

Market, investor and brand implications

For MTN, the debate sits at the intersection of commercial recovery and customer consent.

Its 2025 performance showed the power of data demand: service revenue reached approximately ₦5.2 trillion, active data users rose to 53.2 million and the company returned to profitability. Those numbers reinforce the investment case for Nigerian connectivity, but they also enlarge the duty to demonstrate fairness.

Data revenue can grow because more people are connected, customers consume richer services and tariffs improve. It can also become reputationally fragile if households believe billing is opaque.

Persistent suspicion raises complaint-handling costs, encourages multi-SIM switching, invites political intervention and weakens the social licence for future tariff reviews.

For the wider market, the issue is affordability as much as metering. A technically accurate bill can still be economically painful.

When food, transport, rent and energy are already squeezing disposable income, frequent data recharges become another tax on participation in modern life. Small businesses, creators, students, gig workers and remote professionals feel that pressure most directly because connectivity is both a household expense and a productive input.

The strategic opportunity for telecommunications brands is therefore larger than teaching people to switch on “data saver”.

Operators can compete on intelligibility: clearer bundle design, real-time consumption dashboards, early-warning alerts, easier access to session histories and faster redress. The brand that helps customers understand and control expenditure will possess a trust advantage that discounting alone cannot buy.

BRANDECONOMY Insight

MTN is right that high-definition video, autoplay, background synchronisation and automatic downloads can drain data far faster than many consumers realise. It is also right that Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit imposes costs that are ultimately reflected in telecommunications economics.

But the industry must resist framing every depletion complaint as a problem of consumer ignorance.

In a metered market, the seller controls the meter, the tariff logic and most of the evidence. That asymmetry creates a higher obligation to make charging understandable, contestable and independently auditable.

“Data on Trial” is valuable as a trust-repair platform; its real credibility will be measured after the event.

The winning verdict will not come from a symbolic courtroom. It will come when a subscriber can see what was used, when it was used, how it was charged and where to obtain timely redress—without needing to be a network engineer.