The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), worried by the increasing and persistent cases of poor service, has threatened to sanction the country’s three major telecom operators – MTN Nigeria, Globacom, and Airtel Nigeria – if the quality of service does not improve by Nov. 30.
The commission also threatened to stop the three major operators from further sales of SIM cards by the end of November if they fail to measure up to the key performance indicators set by the NCC to improve quality of service.
According to the commission, the KPI measurement includes call set-up success rate, call completion rate, stand-alone dedicated control channel and handover success rate.
The three operators have been issued a 30-day deadline to reverse the trend of providing poor service.
“It is not in doubt that the customer experience on your network has been far from satisfactory, especially as the commission has been inundated with complaints from various subscribers on this matter,” the commission said in the correspondence to the three operators.
The commission also stated that it will strictly enforce the directive after the expiration of the deadline. Any contravention thereafter will attract a penalty of $31,260 and an additional $3,126 per day while the contravention persists.
It also said that if these companies attempt to sell any new SIM card or attempt to add a new subscriber to their network in contravention of the directive, it will attract a penalty of $6,252 per subscriber.
Earlier, Airtel’s services were disrupted in Abuja and other parts of Northern Nigeria. “The Nigeria Labour Congress in conjunction with the National Union of Post and Telecom Employees had shutdown the telecom operator’s server on Oct. 4 on alleged impossible working condition Airtel imposed on its call center attendants who wanted to retain their jobs,” an African news website reported.
The services were then restored following a four-term agreement reached between the company and the union.
“Confirming the settlement, the president of the National Union of Post and Telecom Employees, Sunday Alhassan, said part of the agreement is that the workers should be recalled to resume duty on Oct. 13 while outstanding bonus should be paid to them by Oct. 17,” the website said.
The warning and deadline notices are sequel to a dismal performance by the three operators on quality of service according to an independent monitoring exercise carried out by the commission across the country, the NCC said.
