The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr Karl Toriola, has urged Nigerians to optimize their mobile phone settings to manage data consumption and prevent the unnecessary depletion of their data bundles.
Toriola made the call at the “Data on Trial” experience organized by MTN Nigeria on Monday in Abuja. The event was organized to address public concerns about data consumption and pricing in Nigeria.
Toriola said several factors influenced data pricing in the country, including the operational costs incurred by telecommunications operators.
According to him, operators spend significantly on electricity, transportation and other infrastructure required to maintain telecommunications sites and ensure reliable services.
He disclosed that MTN spent about N4.05 trillion on power in the preceding year, highlighting the cost pressures facing telecommunications companies.
“Even within the context of data being perceived as more expensive in Nigeria, the UK is the example I was giving.
“Please, understand that in this country, as well as some other African countries, we are providing power and transportation to all our sites. “The cost of electricity, for instance, is higher here than in the UK,” he said.
The MTN chief executive explained that Nigerian operators deployed telecommunications equipment and technologies comparable to those used in Europe and the United States, including Fourth-Generation (4G) and Fifth-Generation (5G) networks.
He said the “Data on Trial” initiative was designed to educate consumers on how phone settings, online activities and application preferences influenced their data consumption.
Earlier, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Communications, Mr Peter Akpatason, described the initiative as an opportunity to improve public understanding of data management and address misconceptions about the telecommunications industry.
Akpatason said the demonstration helped consumers understand how their data was consumed and the steps they could take to prevent avoidable depletion.
He added that the event also challenged the perception that data prices in Nigeria were higher than in other countries.
The lawmaker acknowledged the significant investments required in the telecommunications sector but noted that further investment was needed to improve service quality.
The General Manager, Network Performance and Quality Assurance at MTN Nigeria, Mr Mike Ndukwe, identified video streaming, social media activities and automatic downloads as major factors contributing to rapid data consumption.
Ndukwe explained that opening a video on TikTok consumed relatively little data compared with downloading or continuously streaming content, with consumption depending on video resolution and duration.
He said a 15-second TikTok video could consume between two megabytes (MB) and 20MB, depending on its resolution, noting that high-definition videos generally required more data than standard-definition content.
According to him, 4G and 5G networks support higher-quality video streaming, which can increase data consumption when applications automatically select higher resolutions.
Ndukwe added that WhatsApp users could also experience rapid data depletion due to automatic media downloads, status updates, files shared in group chats, and chat backups.
He advised subscribers to disable automatic media downloads, restrict background data usage and configure applications to download large files only when connected to Wi-Fi.
The MTN official also recommended activating data-saving features on TikTok and other social media platforms, lowering video resolution and disabling automatic playback where possible.
He said MTN provided tools, including the MyMTN application, to help customers monitor their data usage in real time and receive alerts.
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Ndukwe added that the company regularly educated subscribers on data-saving practices and offered MTN FiberX as an unlimited data option for customers with high data requirements, subject to applicable terms and conditions.
He maintained that rapid data depletion generally resulted from users’ online activities and device settings rather than unexplained deductions, urging subscribers to understand how their phones and applications consumed data.
