The Nigerian Communications Commission on Monday waived sanctions it had threatened to issue on telecommunications network operators over poor quality of service offered to subscribers across the country.In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, the Director of Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said new tests carried out by the regulatory agency for the months of September, October and November showed that some operators had recorded slight improvement in their quality of service.NCC had towards the end of October asked MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, Globacom and Airtel Nigeria to improve on their quality of service or risk sanctions by the end of November.Ojobo said, At the expiration of the period given to service providers to improve on their networks, the commission carried out a drive-test to confirm the level of compliance to NCCs directive.The outcome of the test revealed the following: Etisalat and Visafone have been consistent in their improvement towards good quality service provision. While Airtel recorded a significant improvement for the last quarter, Globacom, Starcomms and Multi-links have shown noticeable improvements. MTN and Zoom Mobile showed slight improvements.He also said, The commission is aware of the complaints of consumers arising from poor quality of service and this necessitated the directive that was given to the service providers.Ojobo added that the commission urged the service providers to continue to invest in infrastructure in order to ensure that the Key Performance Indicators were met totally.In the light of the slight improvements recorded, the commission would waive the sanctions for the months measured but would not hesitate to apply sanctions if there is a decline in the current measurements obtained by the commission, he said.Ojobo advised service providers to ensure that the necessary investments were made in the expansion of their infrastructure to be able to cope with the expected rise in voice and data traffic during the Christmas and New Year season.He warned that any further decline in the quality of service during the yuletide would be unacceptable to the regulatory agency.Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has described the successful launch of the new Nigerian Communications Satellite in Xichang, China, as another step towards the development of a modern, knowledge- driven society.The President, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said with the new satellite, Nigeria had kept up with the time-frame of activities contained in the countrys 25-year National Space Development Road Map.He said the new satellite, which was paid for by the insurance policy on NigComSat-1 and de-orbited in 2009, would have a positive impact on national development in various sectors such as communications, Internet services, health, agriculture, environmental protection and national security.
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