MTN urges users to adjust settings to manage data use

MTN Nigeria officials said phone settings and online activity can accelerate mobile data use, urging subscribers to adjust app settings and monitor consumption as the company defended its billing practices and service costs at a public event in Abuja. At MTN’s Data on Trial event on October 26, Chief Executive Officer Karl Toriola said the forum was intended to explain how devices and applications affect data consumption. He said the company’s billing system was transparent, accountable and consistent with global best practices, and said MTN would continue consumer education. His statements addressed concerns about rapid data depletion, but the event did not independently establish what caused any particular subscriber’s balance to fall. Mike Ndukwe, MTN’s general manager of network performance and quality assurance, identified high-resolution video, automatic downloads, background applications, cloud backups and other online activity as factors that can use data. He said a 15-second TikTok video could consume between 2 and 20 megabytes, depending on its resolution. Video quality and automatic playback can affect usage, while WhatsApp media downloads and backups may also...