NCC to Fine Operators this Month over QoS

Telecommunications companies in Nigeria may face another round of sanctions this December if their service provisioning fall below the Nigeria Communications Commission’s (NCC) set service quality thresholds, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek has learnt.

This may be cheering news to telecommunications subscribers who are experiencing poor services but sad for telecom service providers faced with litany of challenges, including the previous combined N1.17 billion fines  in May by NCC for failing to meet minimum service standards.

The battle to get better mobile phone service and coverage has pitted the government against the mobile phone operators and often times the subscribers.

Omobola Johnson, minister of Information Technology said last week in Warri Delta State that “fining (sanctions) isn’t something we want to do every six months, so we’re working very closely with them. If they do not meet that quality of service indicators, they will get fined”

It would be recalled that NCC had also threatened last year to stop operators from signing new customers unless they reduced the number of dropped calls and improved connections.

Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (Alton) has always maintained that  fines or penalties will not solve the problems with service.

“It will not address the fundamentals. The fundamental problems are issues of power and issues of protection and the telecom infrastructure.” Adebayo.

Nigeria’s notoriously unreliable public power supply account for more than 60 per cent of total cost of doing business in the country.

There are also issues of attacks and vandalism of telecom equipment; the vexed problem of multiple taxation; as well as right of way.

Only recently, Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group added another twist with targeted attacks on telecom infrastructure in the northern Nigeria.