DESPITE the gains recorded in the nations telecommunications sector, in terms of job opportunities and expanded access to communication by Nigerians, there have been persistent complaints over declining quality of service, particularly among operators of Global System for Mobile Communications. What makes the matter more depressing, however, is the perceived tendency of the official regulator to treat the concerned companies with kid gloves. The Senate Committee on Communications recently berated telecoms service providers in the country for consistently delivering poor services to subscribers in the past few months.The Chairman of the committee, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, at a meeting with stakeholders, observed that the operators had refused to improve on their services. You hardly can put a call through, and when you manage to do that, it is either your caller can not hear you or vice versa. Even with the poor service, your money is being deducted..., he lamented. Other stakeholders have similarly condemned poor GSM services in the country. Consumers complain of such problems as drop calls, call interference, poor voice clarity, late or non-delivery of Short Message Service, inability to recharge phones and calls not going through due to network congestion. Sometimes, bills are sent for services not rendered. In a recent report, the NCC says the efforts made to reach the threshold of key performance indicators are progressing, taking into consideration the challenges the operators are facing today.Operators have, over time, embarked on lotteries and promotional campaigns for more customers while there has been no significant improvement in facilities, thus creating persistent congestion. The threat by the NCC in October to sanction the three major operators, namely MTN Nigeria, Globacom and Airtel Nigeria, if they failed to meet the key performance indicators established by the commission, including Call Set Up Success Rate, Call Completion Rate, Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel and Handover Success Rate, appeared to have made little impact. Subscribers are disgusted as Customer Care lines of some service providers dont provide the needed succour. A caller would either be cut off after a short pre-recorded voicemail or treated to a repeated barrage of the networks audio advertisements and promotional jingles.Since it was introduced, mobile phone services have brought enormous social and economic benefits to Nigeria, which extend well beyond the industrys direct contribution to the nations Gross Domestic Product, although that in itself is not small. As at October, the NCC put the total active lines for mobile GSM at 88,005,862. Mobile Code Division Multiple Access and Fixed Wired/Wireless were 5,116,957 and 801,297 respectively. Admittedly, operators have had to contend with poor infrastructure, in particular the epileptic power supply that forces them to depend on standby generators, thus making the maintenance of the various base stations costly. Besides, there are security problems with officials of the networks being attacked at lonely locations. There has also been the uncooperative attitude of community leaders, land owners and youths who make inordinate financial demands on operators seeking to site facilities for needed expansion. They have also complained of stolen equipment, vandalism, communal unrest and importation hurdles. Another sore point is the allegation of multiple taxation by the three tiers of government. It will however be unfair for service providers to continue to use such excuses to deny their customers of quality services.There is a need for strict enforcement of standards by the regulatory authorities. The wisdom in the decision by the NCC to waive its planned sanctions against telecoms network operators over poor quality of service across the country is yet to be clearly seen. According to the Director of Public Affairs at the NCC, Mr.Tony Ojobo, this was done in the light of the slight improvements recorded. He however vowed that the commission would not hesitate to apply sanctions if there is a decline in the current measurements obtained by the commission. Despite the telecoms operators earlier resistance to a court judgment ordering compensation to subscribers for service failures, the consumers should insist on their right to be adequately compensated for poor services.The NCC and the network operators must work together to further lower the cost of ownership, reduce tariffs and improve quality of service. The NCC should guarantee end user satisfaction and network quality perception. To achieve minimum cost of ownership and improved quality of service, there must also be conscious efforts to improve the operating environment. The NCC should focus on allowing network sharing, which reduces capital investment costs and increases network rollout and geographic coverage, among operators. Service providers ought to invest in the expansion of their infrastructure to be able to cope with the rise in voice and data traffic.They also need to embrace global technology trends to avoid collapse and improve networks efficiency. The delay in introducing number portability also accounts for the present inefficiency in the sector as this would guarantee greater competition and give subscribers opportunities to migrate from one network to another without changing their SIM cards.It is argued that governments should not impose excessive tax burdens on the mobile phone industry or they will hinder the penetration of these services and the public value they can create. While the government ought to fulfil its own side of the social contract by improving on infrastructure and security across the country, there is equally a need for the regulator to enforce the rules and stop portraying itself as a dog that can only bark and not bite. The NCCs draft Quality of Service Regulations should be immediately ratified and put into use.
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