Telecom
Enextgen Wireless Seeks Collaboration with NCC, Telcos to Address QoS
By peter oluka
Unwillingness of telecommunications companies in Nigeria to perform basic pre-deployment RF engineering before going commercial contributes significantly to the persistent poor quality of service (QoS), according to Enextgen Wireless Ltd.
To address the challenge, the Company has called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the network service providers, to leverage on its National Independent Wireless Broadband Quality Reporting (NIWBQR); for realistic reports on national broadband quality of experience in mobile wireless communication services in the country.
Mr. Aderemi Adeyeye, president, Enext Wireless Inc., said that close to two years, the Company has been using its proprietary methods to rank service providers according to the quality of mobile wireless broadband service experienced in their networks, adding that experience has shown some terrible engineering mistakes during deployment as contributory to the poor quality of service experienced by telecom consumers.
Adeyeye told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that there are basic things the operators should do which, “in my view, do not require so much innovations rather basic engineering”.
“If you deploy a network, the cell sites have to talk each other. When someone wants to maintain data transfer while moving from one area of the network to another, the network has to be aware of such movement and allow the data transfer to continue without disruption.
“Specifically, with regards quality of service in Nigeria, our observation is that the quality of deployment in Nigeria is very poor. How bad? It varies from a service provider to the other.
“Nevertheless, there is a specific service provider that seems very aggressive in providing quality LTE deployment and akin to deploy services nationwide. Meanwhile, this service provider, in some areas, has some major issues such as connection failure and drops. Overall, their network is good.
“The quality of deployment of some smaller service provider is so bad that nowhere in the world, except in this clime would a service provider will be allowed to deploy that kind of network to the public.”
Mr. Kola Olaosebikan, managing director of Enextgen Wireless Ltd, nodding in agreement bemoaned that the service providers haven’t taken issues around technical competencies cum engineering very seriously.
“Now, if the consumers are not happy, it implies the service providers are not proficient in some areas. This time, the engineering; they need to optimise their networks regularly. This is what the NIWBQR recognises. For instance, when we conducted the latest study, we have detailed analyses showing why they have issues such as drop calls, connection failures etc. But most of the service providers depend on a single vendor to help them end-to-end. Sometimes, it is difficult getting them to buy into the idea of the report”, he said.
Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) is planning to encourage geo-political regions that grants zero charges for ‘Right of Way’ approvals as well not implementing arbitrary charges on telecommunications base stations in their regions with zero tariff.
Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON disclosed this to Nigeria CommunincationsWeek against the backdrop of incessant closure of base stations in some states.
He said that operators believe that the way out of this arbitrary charges and high cost of RoW approvals is regional tariffs.
“Operators are advocating for a regional tariff which means that geographical regions of Nigeria where cost of doing business for telecommunications operators is extremely high will attract high tariff compared to regions where there is low operating cost.
“Our advocacy of regional tariff is not based on a particular state but on regions. As at today there are regions where we have zero cost of “Right of Way” and low cost of doing business. Tariffs should reflect on operating environment. This means that national rate plan should consider high and low cost of doing business.
“If this is implemented, in a long run we could witness some regions having zero tariff because operational cost in such regions are friendly to operators,” he said.
It would be recalled that Kogi State recently shut down some operators’ base stations on account of local levies which raises the call for discriminatory tariff among geographical locations.
Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has hit back at Meta Platforms Inc, warning the tech giant that its threat to exit Nigeria will not erase its legal responsibilities or liabilities under the Nigerian law.
Meta said earlier today, May 3, that it “may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures.”
Meta’s warning came after it lost a legal bid last week to overturn a ₦220 million fine imposed by the FCCPC for violations of data protection and consumer rights laws.
Reacting to Meta’s threat, FCCPC, in a statement on Saturday, May 3, described Meta’s statement as “a calculated” move aimed at “inducing negative public reaction and potentially pressuring the FCCPC to reconsider its decision.”
FCCPC said that Meta threatening to leave Nigeria does not absolve the company of liabilities for the outcome of a judicial process.
“These infringements included denying Nigerians the right to control their personal data, transferring and sharing Nigerian user data without authorisation, discriminating against Nigerian users compared to users in other jurisdictions and abusing their dominant market position by forcing unfair privacy policies,” FCCPC wrote on X.
“Interestingly, Meta had been fined for similar breaches in Texas ($1.5b) and only recently was asked to pay $1.3 Billion for violating E.U. Data Privacy Rules.
Elsewhere in India, South Korea, France and Australia, Meta had faced varying penalties for similar breaches. But Meta never resorted to the blackmail of threatening to exit those countries. They obeyed.”
Meta may shut down its Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in protest against the substantial fines imposed by multiple government agencies.
The tech giant has been ordered to pay nearly $300 million in fines in Africa’s most populous nation, following regulatory demands which Meta described as “unrealistic.”
In July 2024, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), imposed a $220 million fine on Meta for allegedly discriminatory and exploitative practices against Nigerian consumers.
The commission stated that Meta had failed to engage a Data Protection Compliance Organisation and had not submitted a Nigeria Data Protection Regulation audit report for two consecutive years.
Similarly, the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), demanded $37.5 million over unapproved advertising, while the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC), announced a $32.8 million fine for an alleged data privacy breach.
Meta challenged the decisions at the Federal High Court in Abuja but was unsuccessful, as the court upheld the fines in a ruling delivered last week.
The court directed the company to comply with payment by the end of June, but Meta has indicated it may not do so, according to the BBC.
“The applicant may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures,” the company stated in court documents.
Responding to the NDPC’s assertion that Meta’s data processing could expose Nigerian users to health and financial risks, the company said the agency had failed to “properly interpret the laws guiding data privacy.”
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