At a recent celebration of 10 years of digital mobile communications in Nigeria, the ExecutiveVice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, had reason to claim thatthe industry had grown phenomenally within the period.He also expressed concerns in his brief remarks at the ceremony over the quality of service offered by operators.Juwah said, The NCC in fulfillment of the mandate by the Telecoms Act has ensured that Nigerians have access to telephone services at affordable prices. However, we are not unaware of the challenges, which such rapid growth has visited on the industry.The good news is that the commission is providing regulatory intervention to curtail such challenges. The main challenge has been that of quality of service that has not reached the envisaged level of efficiency.What is paramount to us at the NCC is to have a telecom industry that is robust, vibrant and efficient, and which will be an impetus for greater economic development of the country. We are trying to promote an industry that will fully support the presidents transformation agenda.It was therefore not surprising that NCC returned from the celebration to issue a warning to operators to sit up on the quality of service they offered or face sanctions.According to the regulatory agency, should three GSM operators, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, Globacom Nigeria Limited and Airtel Nigeria, fail to meet the set standards, they may be barred from selling new Subscriber Identity Module cards.A statement issued the by Head of Media and Public Relations at the NCC, Mr. Reuben Muoka, said the three operators have been issued a 30-day deadline, with effects from November 1, 2011, to reverse the trend of poor quality of service. He said the deadline followed a dismal performance by the three operators on quality of service from the result of an independent monitoring exercise carried out by the commission across the country, which showed that they failed to meet with four key performance indicators that were crucial for quality of service improvement. The key performance indicators measured by the commission included call set up success rate, call completion rate, stand alone dedicated control channel and handover success rate. Muoka said, Consequently, the commission has notified the three operators of its intention to issue a direction that with effect from November 30, 2011, any of the operators that fail to meet the targets will be barred from further sale of its SIM Cards or addition of any new subscriber to its network. Any new SIM card sold, or additional subscriber added to the network in contravention of the direction, will attract a penalty of N1, 000,000 per subscriber added.The commission also indicated that after the expiration of the 30-day deadline, it would strictly enforce the impending direction whose contravention will attract a penalty of N5,000,000 and an additional N500,000 per day that such contravention persists.Additionally, failure of any of the operators to meet the quality of service targets from November 30, 2011 will attract a fine of N500,000 for every month of failure, the NCC spokesman added.It should be noted that the issue of poor quality of service has been a recurring decimal in the country. As a result of this, the National Assembly had at various times summoned operators and regulators to make explanation for deteriorating network qualities.Various reasons had been adduced for poor quality of service in telecommunications services offered by operators. One of such reasons, according to operators, is inadequate public power supply.They said that a greater percentage of the problem that operators battle with on day-to-day basis emanates from power. They argue that as a result of inadequate public power supply, telecom operators have become the biggest electricity generating firms in the country.Another challenge, they argue inadequate transmission capacity. As a result of shortage of transmission capacity occasioned by the incapacitation of backbone provider, the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, several operators have now delved into transmission infrastructure provision.Operators have also at some other times argued that reduction in tariff have led to overcrowding of networks. The argument is that once there is reduction in tariff, a new threshold is established for poorer segments of the population to use the inadequate capacities offered by operators. Reduction in tariffs also enables existing operators to make more calls than before.Mobile operators also argue that inadequacy of fixed line services in the country also force Nigerian subscribers to rely solely on mobile networks unlike in some climes where consumers only use this kind of network when they are on the move.Some also argue that regulation and practices in some areas make it difficult for operators to roll out base stations and other facilities that can improve the quality of networks.Subscribers, however, say that they are not paying for operators to offer them excuses. According to them, there are challenges in all climes and it is the responsibility of operators to overcome them in order to justify the confidence of subscribers who keep them in business.General Manager, Corporate Affairs at MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, Mrs. Funmi Omogbenigun, recognises the demand of subscribers adding that her company always work hard to satisfy them.She said, Beyond NCCs recent directive to operators, MTN Nigeria has always worked to improve the quality of its service through a very aggressive network roll out and optimisation strategy.As MTNs subscribers have grown, the company has continued to deploy additional network infrastructure with a view to meeting, and exceeding the expectations of our esteemed subscribers.This year alone, MTN has invested $1bn in network optimization; expanding the fibre-optic cable network and the micro-wave backbone and this has gone a long way in substantially increasing the capacity of our network. MTN has consistently invested more than any other company since inception.She added, We expect to deploy and integrate a significant percentage increase in the current number of sites over the next three years. In 2012 alone, our goal is to deploy an additional 1,800 sites - that is a 26 per cent increase in the current number of sites.MTN has not relented in its efforts to increase network capacity and we go to great lengths to do so in spite of the known environmental challenges in Nigeria. We count on the cooperation of the NCC and government to facilitate our numerous efforts to achieve our common objective.Juwah recognised that operators had enormous challenges in meeting set standards. He listed the challenges to include erratic public power supply, vandalisation of telecom infrastructure, lack of basic infrastructure, high level insecurity, multiple taxation and militancy.Identifying challenges is one thing; tackling them is another. This is what subscribers expect operators and the regulatory agency to do in order to deliver better quality services that will boost patronage.
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