WHY NIGERIANS’ DATA FINISHES FAST — MTN

MTN Nigeria says high-quality videos, automatic downloads and apps running in the background are among the reasons subscribers’ data bundles run out faster than expected.

Speaking at a forum in Abuja on Monday, the company’s General Manager of Network Performance, Mike Ndukwe, denied allegations that telecom operators deliberately deduct customers’ data.

He explained that phones can use data even when their owners are not actively browsing. Background applications, cloud backups and automatic downloads can continue consuming an internet bundle without users noticing.

Ndukwe said video quality also makes a difference. Watching videos in high definition uses more data than viewing them at a lower resolution. According to him, a 15-second video could consume between two and 20 megabytes, depending on its quality.

He added that while ordinary text messages use little data, videos, status updates and automatic media downloads can significantly increase consumption.

To help bundles last longer, he advised subscribers to turn off automatic downloads, lower video quality, activate data-saving settings and regularly check their usage.

MTN Nigeria’s General Manager of IT Operations, David Ogunsola, also addressed differences between the data usage shown on phones and network records.

He said these differences could result from how usage is measured, background traffic and when data sessions are recorded.

The company maintained that understanding phone settings and monitoring internet activity could help subscribers manage their data more effectively.