Against the backdrop of mounting complaints by mobile phone subscribers about poor services, experts have advised operators to work at expanding their networks by 2012, writes Dayo Oketola.As the year draws to a close, telecoms experts have condemned the seemingly unsolvable poor quality of services on the mobile service providers networks in the country and urged operators to work hard at expanding their networks to solve the problem.The Chairman, Teledom Group, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone on Saturday, decried the fact that the countrys over 100 million mobile phone subscribers continued to grapple with poor service quality.According to him, it is worrisome that network operators lack the capacity to cope with the increasing traffic generated by subscribers in the country.Ekuwem, a former President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, however, said it was an economic imperative for every operator to offer excellent service to subscribers, adding that failure to do so could limit economic growth.He noted that good mobile service would boost the economy, saying that poor QoS had a negative effect on the economy as a result of insufficient transmission of knowledgeHe said, It is an economic imperative that every operator, with the coordination and supervision of the Nigerian Communications Commission, gives the consumers good QoS. Because every time somebody makes a call, or receives a call, or sends an SMS or accesses data services, that person wants to translate the information acquired into production.When the QoS is poor, it has a negative effect on the economy because of insufficient transmission of knowledge. This is because if transmission and digital exchange of knowledge is limited, the economy suffers a setback. But if digital knowledge is freely exchanged at the right time and in the right shape, then that culminates to a boost in the economy. Good QoS is an indispensable ingredient to the growth of the economy.He added that there was the need for network operators to increase their capacity in 2012.Network operators have complained that the entire telecoms industry suffered from capacity constraints as demand outstrips supply.MTN Nigeria recently identified various infrastructural challenges, such as poor power supply, logistics, vandalism, theft and community issues as responsible for poor QoS in the country.Similarly, the closure of base stations by unauthorised officials of multiple government agencies in order to collect all manner of levies and taxes also impedes the delivery of quality service.The General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Corporate Services Division, MTN, Mrs. Funmilayo Omogbenigun, said deliberate vandalism of fibre optic cables owned by mobile network operators was becoming rampant, adding that it contributed significantly to poor QoS in the nation.In the same vein, the Chief Operating Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Deepak Srivastava, had said over 70 per cent of downtime experienced by subscribers on the networks of service providers was due to poor electricity supply in the country.In view of this, the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, NCC, Dr. Bashir Gwandu, urged network operators to identify areas where there were Signal Coverage Gaps and weak signals and invest to meet consumers demandHe also advised them to identify base station controllers, base Transceiver stations, interconnect-link and transmission-links that were congested and address the problem while expanding their networks.Unable to give an estimate of what operators must invest in 2012 to surmount the QoS challenge, Gwandu, said, I believe the required investment will be in hundreds of millions dollars depending on size and/or extent of non-compliance. For us, as regulators, we want to ensure that if an operator is selling a minute talk-time the consumer is able to use the full-minute, and the channel must be clean and clear during the conversation.The NCC had recently threatened to sanction MTN, Globacom and Airtel over service quality issues by barring them from adding new subscribers if Key Performance Indicators set for QoS were not met.The three GSM majors were then given till November 30, 2011 to improve their networks or face the wrath of the telecoms regulatory body.However, following the outcome of a network audit that revealed varying levels of improvement by the affected service providers, the NCC decided to drop the sanction threat.The Executive Vice-Chairman, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, said, 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 however, showed slight improvements.However, Gwandu, a former Acting EVC of the NCC said the NCC could have done a lot better by setting the right rules and regulations that were adequate enough to hold operators to account when they erred in meeting the required QoS levels.He stated that the QoS thresholds for which operators were being held to account were simply inadequate, saying that was the reason a new one was developed almost four years ago.He, however, said the new QoS standard was only recently approved to be gazetted as a QoS regulation by the NCC board.The former acting EVC of the NCC said operators could not be punished based on inadequate QoS regulation.He said, If the standards expected to be met is inadequate in itself and the operators are able to meet such standard, then, we cannot punish the operators since they are not in breach of the legal standard of QoS. The necessary step to take is first to correct the rules to a level that if met can lead to good quality of service and experience.I expect that as soon as the new QoS regulation takes effect after gazetting and NCC enforces compliance including fines so provided for, then, we should begin to notice some improvements.Gwandu stated that the NCC through the Federal Government should take steps to protect telecoms infrastructure in the country, adding that vandals and those closing Base Transceiver Station sites needed to pay prices for their actions before any significant progress could be made in QoS improvement.ATCON President, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, had said mobile network operators in Nigeria were just paying lip service to the issue of Quality of Service.According to him, the absence of quality mobile network services manifest when customers have to be wooed with promos.
Click here to read full news..
