Mixed reactions have greeted the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) ultimatum to telecommunications operators compelling them to articulate compensation plan for their subscriber before the end of January next year.
While the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) doubted what might become the outcome of the ultimatum; the Association of Telecommunication Company of Nigeria (ATCON) called for concerted efforts to tackle the challenges that cause poor quality of service (QoS).
The NCC had at its fourth quarter industry consumer advisory forum in Abuja, said that it has set up a committee to look into how consumers would be compensated directly by telcos for loss of air time due to their inefficiencies.
This is perhaps a reaction to the agitation of telecoms subscribers that have never concealed their disgust at the current practice where the telcos are fined and payment made to the coffers of the Federal Government.
Commenting on the ultimatum, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, president, NATCOMS, doubted if the move would yield any positive result.
He told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that subscribers are heavily shortchanged adding that, “We are in court and NCC as the regulator has always said that their mandate does not cover ordering the operators to compensate the shortchanged subscribers, except when there is total service disruption or service outage”
“We are still asking for a minimum of N10, 000 worth of compensation for every subscriber. We don’t know whether NCC will prescribe the amount to be paid by operators to subscribers on their networks or if it is the operators that will give us what ever they deem right; until we know that, we cannot say it has become a relief for the subscriber, if not, we will still fight on”. He added.
But, Engineer Lanre Ajayi, president, ATCON called for concerted efforts to tackle the lingering issues of quality of service provisioning.
“My opinion is that efforts should be focused on expanding the infrastructure base of the operators to accommodate more subscribers; because that is one of the ways networks are impacted. I may not give vivid answer on what the impact will be on the operators should NCC insist on the compensation, but I think it is better to tackle the challenges that cause poor quality of service,” Ajayi said.
Elsewhere, the NCC said the number of complaints has come down to about 40,000 from all over the federation per day.
It said through Dr. Okechukwu Itanyi, executive commissioner, Stakeholder Management at NCC, that the commission was working with operators to address infrastructure challenges that result in poor quality of service.
He added that there were enormous challenges in obtaining right of way, erecting base stations, power, vandalism, and robbery of generators and equipment.