The Telecom industry in Nigeria is currently experiencing a massive boom, they are gaining more subscribers year in year out, while that is a good thing for Technology and Internet penetration in Nigeria, it is also very imperative that these subscribers deserve not to be stripped off or denied of their privacy using any Telecom provider in Nigeria.
This is why NCC put in place DND to give Nigerian telecom subscribers some level of privacy.
What is DND?
For those of you that might be wondering what DND is, this is for you. Digital and telemarketing services in Nigeria are fond of sending Unsolicited SMS sometimes make indiscreet calls to subscribers in their plans to sell a product or service, they often flood your phone with unending promotional messages and this may be very annoying.
Privacy and Other Issues Before DND
This privacy invasion issue is peculiar to every telco user in Nigeria, this is simply because these telcos want to maximize their gains even when it is at the expense of their subscribers, they care less!
In this detailed guide, I will show you how to activate DND for all Network providers in Nigeria, be it MTN, 9Mobile, Glo, and Airtel, on whichever network, you will be able to activate the Do Not Disturb (DND) feature to block all unsolicited SMS and calls.
Imagine that at the time you are expecting an important message from your bank about a credit alert for an emergency fund you need to raise in School and all of a sudden you got an SMS alert, all to open up your phone and what you is see another unsolicited promotional SMS messages, Isn’t that annoying enough?
There are worse situations with subscribers in Nigeria. I remembered before I activate DND on my airtel, I used to get activated for some shortcode service automatically and anytime I recharge my Airtel line they debit my phone, this is a very annoying thing from the Telco and it is a total rip off, if you call them and complain about it, what they will simply tell you is, you might have activated the service at a time you did not remember which is not true, they are just trying to make you look dumb to yourself.
NCC Nigeria Enforce DND on Telecoms
This type of rip off and privacy invasion in the highest order on the parts of the Telecommunication companies has made the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) enforce the DND shortcode on July 1, 2016.
Nigerian communications commission (NCC) as a major stakeholder in the telecommunications industry has stepped to put a caution on the action of the telcos by putting in place the DND feature. Do Not Disturb (DND) is a service put in place to enable telco subscribers in Nigeria ward off or block unsolicited SMS messages from third parties who use shortcode services and also from the network service providers. It simply blocks you from receiving unwanted and unexpected promotional SMS messages.
Issues After DND came about in Nigeria
A month after DND was put in place in 2016, many issues about it start to crop up in these forms:
Several users start to complain of not getting important messages delivered to their phones anymore, which is because the Network service providers just went ahead to add their subscribers to a full version DND which blocks them totally from receiving any type of SMS both from third parties and service providers.
The NCC’s directive only directed that all telecommunication companies should allow their customers to be able to select the types of services that they want to block.
The process has experienced a whole lot of overhaul and review and subscribers can now selectively block the types of promotional SMS they don’t want as they active the Do Not Disturb Service on their phone numbers.
How to activate DND on Glo, MTN 9Mobile, & Airtel
Before you use any of the below code, you need to first decide if you will want to STOP all unsolicited SMS or you want to do only a partial block that allows some category of SMS to come into your mobile.
Please mind that, 2442 is the code to activate DND on all networks in Nigeria, be it MTN, Glo, Airtel, 9Mobile and all.
How to Activate full DND SMS “STOP” to 2442.
If you want to activate full DND and stop all unsolicited SMS coming to your mobile phone simply pick your mobile phone, go to SMS app, open it up and type in STOP then send that to 2442. You will immediately receive a message that says
Your request for Full DND has been received and will be effective within 24hrs.
How to Activate Partial DND
To activate partial DND, first, send pick your mobile phone, go to SMS app, open it up and type in STOP then send that to 2442 as explained above earlier.
Partial DND feature makes it possible for you to allow selective messages to come into your mobile and others remain blocked. Now that you have activated the Full DND, the next thing is to check the table below to see the types or categories of messages you might be interested in and allow just that.
For example, if you want to keep receiving Banking/Insurance/Financial Products all you need to do is send a new SMS with the message 1 to 2442 and you will receive this message to show you have been activated to continue to receive messages in that particular category.
Your request for News Alerts has been received and will be effective within 24hrs.
If you want to activate more categories, simply follow the same process, see the table below to pick as appropriate.
DND MENU | ACTIVATION CODE |
If you want to keep receiving all SMS and IVR messages | SMS ALLOW to 2442 |
Want to Stop receiving all SMS and IVR messages | SMS STOP to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Banking/Insurance/Financial Products | SMS 1 to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Real Estate | SMS 2 to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Education | SMS 3 to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Health | SMS 4 to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Consumer goods and Automobiles | SMS 5 to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT | SMS 6 to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Tourism/Leisure | SMS 7 to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Sports | SMS 8 to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Religion | SMS 9 to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Christianity | SMS 9a to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Islam | SMS 9b to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving Others | SMS 9c to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving information on new products/services from the service provider | SMS 10 to 2442 |
Want to continue receiving News Alerts | SMS 11 to 2442 |
Other Useful DND Menus
How much are you charged by Telecoms to activate or deactivate DND?
All major four telecommunication providers in Nigeria doesn’t charge for this service, In fact, no network should chare for the service. It is absolutely free to activate DND and use all of its features.
Also, mind that the DND feature is only available for SMS, so it is possible to receive received calls from Telcom providers and marketing offers on calls through companies.
How to Stop or Deactivate DND on MTN, AIRTEL, GLO & 9MOBILE
To deactivate ‘Do Not Disturb’ (DND) on your phone, you can use the below codes:
NETWORK PROVIDERS | CODE TO DEACTIVATE DND |
Deactivate DND on MTN | SMS STOP to 2442 and after 5 Minutes SMS ALLOW to 2442 |
Deactivate DND on Airtel | SMS STOP to 2442 and after 5 Minutes SMS OUT to 2442 |
Deactivate DND on Glo | SMS STOP to 2442 and after 5 Minutes SMS CANCEL to 2442 |
Deactivate DND on 9Mobile | SMS STOP to 2442 and after 5 Minutes SMS START to 2442 |
I hope you find this guide on how to activate DND on Glo, MTN and Airtel and 9Mobile very useful. We have also explained how you can deactivate DND on all of those Networks if you so wish to do so.
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