IJRDO-Journal of Educational Research ISSN: 2456-2947 ATTITUDE OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS TO UNSOLICITED SMS ADVERTISING BY GSM OPERATORS Awofadeju Peter Olayinka Department of Mass Communication, Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria.
[email protected], 07032078695 Ewuola Philip Olubunmi Department of Mass Communication, Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, Osun State, Nigeria.
[email protected] Abstract: This research was carried out to examine the attitude of undergraduate students to unsolicited SMS advertising by GSM operators, using the undergraduate students of Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State as the case study. Survey method of gathering data was adopted for this paper by distributing well-developed questionnaire to elicit responses from the respondents, the sample size of which was 120. The findings clearly showed that GSM operators’ unsolicited SMS advertisements generates unfavourable attitudes and they are mostly unbeneficial, unexciting, confusing, misleading, and irritating. In addition, they are neither of any informational values nor relevant because the messages were not permitted by the subscribers that receive them, which is why they delete them immediately after receiving them. Therefore, sending such unsolicited messages should be discontinued. Keywords: SMS, GSM, Message, Advertise Background to the Study Telecommunication in Nigeria received a boost in 2001 with the deregulation of the industry, which allowed private Global System of Mobile communication (GSM) service providers to come into the country to support the existing national operator, the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL). Two private companies, Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) of South Africa and ECONET of Zimbabwe, were licensed by the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) to operate GSM in addition to NITEL, the country’s own telecommunication company.