NCC gives telecom operators 2 wks ultimatum on quality of service

Dr. Ify Umenyi, DG, CPC. Dr. Eugene Juwah, EVC of NCC and Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi, Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, during the visit of the CPC team to NCC.

By Prince Osuagwu

The Nigerian Communications Commission may wield the big stick in a short while, unless the telecom operators in Nigeria yield to its two weeks ultimatum to  dicongest their networks and up their services.

Executive Vice Chairman 0f the Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah  read the riot act  when the Director General of the Consumer Protection Council, Mrs. Ify Umenyi,visited his office. He said that quality of services issues have deteriorated in recent times, forcing the Commission to carry out tests which resulted in the discovery of congestion in the networks.

He however said that the ultimatum has become necessary as an interim solution during which the task force set up by the Commission finalizes its work and the operators would be compelled by law to do what they are expected to do. 

He noted that the Commission gave the directive after it carried out some tests on some 100 base stations out of which about 30 per cent of them were exorbitantly congested.

“We expect that within two weeks, they must be decongested. The ball is now in the court of the operators to carry out our instructions and if they fail, they will be penalized”, he said.

He said this problem has appeared intractable but that the Commission is working hard to find a lasting solution. He said this solution actually lies in the operators investing more in the networks within over certain period and we have to monitor these investments at some point.

He said the Commission will soon begin to publish the congestion levels on the networks as time goes on while we also stick to measurement and enforcement of the Key performance Indicators on the threshold for quality of service.

He however called for the patience of the subscribers, promising that though the issues of quality of services may not disappear overnight, something must be done to whittle down the deteriorating level is is fast getting.

Responding to the concerns raised by the DG of Consumer Protection Council, Mrs. Umenyi on the issue of tariffs, Dr. Juwah said that it was not long  the Commission lowered the interconnect rates but however admitted that it  was yet to reflect in what the consumers pay. 

He said the Commission was watching how this reduction trickles down to the consumer before embarking on another round of interconnection rate determination.

He said the Commission is delighted that the operators are now beginning to invest more in their networks as some of them have announced recently to have secured more funding for expansion of their services.

He responded to a number of concerns raised by Mrs. Umenyi, including a promise to begin the process for Number Portability in May this year, after the SIM Card registration which commences by end of the month has reached an appreciable stage as the Commission would desire to know the identity of those porting their numbers from one network to another.