Reuters reported that two sources had informed it that the cell phone operator had written a letter to Nigerian authorities asking for leniency.
MTN was fined $5.2 billion (N1.04 trillion) for not deactivating unregistered SIM cards from its network.
Giving details of the fine, NCC said the commission had consistently engaged Mobile Network Operators, (MNOs) to strictly adhere to the regulations and its business rules in the registration of their subscribers.
But despite all of these several engagements, the commission confirmed various cases of violations of the regulations and sanctioned appropriately.
Consistent with the commission’s mandate and its regulatory process, the commission monitored MNOs compliance with the above regulations and in 2012, observed irregularities in the registration process.
Given the recent security concerns in the country, government held several meetings with MNOs on the need to ensure only properly registered SIM cards are active on their networks, NCC said.
On August 4, 2015, another high level meeting was held with the MNOs. Consequent upon which earlier directives were reinforced with a deadline to deactivate all invalid/improperly registered SIM cards within seven days ending August 11, 2015.
Three days after the deadline, the commission carried out a compliance audit of all the MNOs from 14th to 18th August, 2015.
The outcome of the audit showed that while all other MNOs complied substantially with the directive to deactivate improperly registered SIM xards, MTN showed no sign of compliance at all.
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