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admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

NCC Gives GSM Operators 7 Days to Improve Services

Daily Trust
15 June 2007

The four GSM operators in the country will from next week receive sanctions from the NCC for poor quality of service to their customers. The decision to sanction the operators is coming after six years of persistent complaints and boycott of services by subscribers over dwindling quality of services.

Many subscribers had complained that the hiccups in services had resulted in loss of opportunities, time and money. A reliable source in the regulatory body told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja that the operators would pay N500,000 fine for each of the areas they failed to render good service from next week.

The source said the NCC had sent "directions" to the operators to improve their network and operations within seven days or "risk the hammer of the regulator".

The source said that some of the areas of concern included wrong billing, bounced SMS, dropped calls, unregistered and fraudulent marketing and poor treatment of customers by the operators in the various customer centres.

Subscribers had complained to the NCC that the operators hired unskilled staff who most of the time used uncouth language to reply to complaints on poor services. Another source at the headquarters of the organisation said the "directions" by the NCC

to the operators was a technical term used in the telecom industry, which "connotes an indictment for poor operation". The source said the directions usually specified the areas that required improvement, but the import of such an instruction went a long way to smear the operator in international cycles as "ineffective".

The NCC Head of Consumer Bureau, Malam Abdu-llahi Maikano, confirmed that the regulatory body had received many complaints on the poor operations of GSM companies and the complaints had been mounting by the day.

He said that the decision to sanction operators was not under his purview and referred NAN to the Director of Technical Research and Standard, Dr Sylvanus Ehikioya and the Head of Public Affairs, Mr Dave Imoko, for more details.

When contacted, Ehiki-oya said the regulatory body had been meeting on the complaints by consumers on poor quality of service, but the meetings had been inconclusive so far. He said the regulatory body was, however, not satisfied with the operations of the operators and treatment of customers.

Ehikioya added that the Executive Vice Chairman Ernest Ndukwe or Imoko would speak on the NCC's position on the issue. When contacted, Imoko said there was an ongoing meeting on quality of service at the NCC headquarters, but he was not aware of the "directions" yet. NAN recalls that top officials of the NCC, including the Executive Vice Chairman met with the GSM operators last month over rising complaints on poor services. (NAN)

Copyright © 2007 Daily Trust

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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

About time.

Maybe some of the providers in the U.S. that also have poor quality will also learn from this.
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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

Poor Service - NCC Sanctions MTN

Daily Trust
Hamisu Muhammad
21 June 2007

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has slammed its hammer on MTN Nigeria for poor services on its network after several warnings.

Henceforth, MTN should submit to the commission on weekly basis a report of its achievements on quality of service parameters for an initial period of ninety days or until it (MTN) improved service quality, the commission said.

In a letter dated June 14, 2007 and addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria titled: Issuance of direction to MTN Nigeria Communications Limited Pursuant To Section 53 (1) of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, NCC said it has banned all new promotions encouraging more call minutes.

"In exercise of its powers contained in Sections 4 (1) (b), 53 of the Nigerian Communication Act, 2003 and Condition 30.3 of the Digital Mobile Licence, the Commission having also considered the appeal of MTN, hereby issues Direction as follows:

That MTN should not embark on any future promotional activities geared towards encouraging more minutes of calls in excess of its current capacity for a period of ninety (90) days in the first instance. "This shall take effect within seven (7) days from the receipt of this Direction".

That MTN should comply with quality of service parameters stated in the said notice of intention to issue a direction and should submit to the Commission on weekly basis a report of its achievements on these parameters for an initial period of ninety (90) days or until the QoS improves. The Commission expects to receive the first report on June 25, 2007;

"The Direction not to embark on future promotional activities above may be subject to a thirty (30) day review so as to monitor improvements in the quality of service level" the commission said. NCC said if MTN fails to comply with this directive, the Commission shall in accordance with the Nigerian Communications (Enforcement Processes etc) Regulations 2005 impose a fine of N5million and a further sum of N.5million per day that such penalty remains unpaid and for as long as the contravention persists.

Copyright © 2007 Daily Trust
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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

Bravo!!! Considering the very poor services they charge exhorbitant costs for, milking the consumers while declaring billions in profits, they definitely deserve the citation.

[I only wish the billion dollar profit-declaring gas companies in the US milking their consumers by charging almost $4 per gal of gas could get similar citations.]
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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

Monitoring Group to Address Poor Telecoms Service

This Day
Efem Nkanga
28 June 2007

In its bid to find a lasting solution to the poor quality of service being provided by mobile telecom operators in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is to set up a Quality of Service Monitoring Group.

Executive Vice Chairman of (NCC), Engr Ernest Ndukwe said this yesterday in Abuja at a public forum organised by the commission on the quality of telecom service in the country.

He said the group would be an industry and government working body set up to put quality of service issues at the front burner and would be made up of representatives of operators, Association of Telecoms Companies (ATCON), Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators (ALTON), NCC, one or two consumer advocacy groups as well as any interested person who applied and is adjudged to be able to add value to the Group.

The NCC boss said the group would have regular monthly meetings in a bid to find lasting solutions and ensure telecoms subscribers enjoy better quality of service.

According to him, "the monitoring group will take whatever solutions to the underlying problems responsible for poor quality of service to the government if it concerns the government and the ones they think managing directors of affected companies should address would be taken to them for solutions."

At the forum yesterday, issues of lack of adequate power supply, insecurity, vandalisation, transmission, multiple taxation and network overloading were cited as reasons for the poor quality of service currently being experienced by telecoms subscribers in the country.

Participants at the forum made presentations and deliberated on the issues confronting the networks and the way forward for the industry.

While identifying six key issues highlighted at the forum, Ndukwe said top on the agenda was power which he said runs across all the presentations. The second main issue, according to him, is security then limited transmission, overloading of existing network by operators with promotions without enough capacity to back the process as well as the inability of the network operators to be proactive.

He said operators need to be proactive by informing their subscribers about the problems they encounter so that the subscribers can modify their expectations as well.

The EVC however admitted that the responsibility for power and security rest with the government. He also said it is the duty of the operators to provide alternative power supply to power their base stations following any power failure. He advised operators to identify and invest in alternative power like solar, biodiesel, etc., to cushion the effect of the power challenge they continually faced.

On the issue of transmission, Ndukwe advised operators to build a long distance infrastructure and keep investing in transmission expansion. He said they should keep expanding their capacity in order not to overload their transmissions.

He also identified promotions by operators as one of the main reasons why their networks are congested and called on them to limit their promotions so as not to overload their networks.

He said the NCC would intensify quality of service monitoring and continue to be on top of operators to ensure that they deliver best possible services to their subscribers.

Copyright © 2007 This Day
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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

House Summons GSM Operators Over Poor Services
http://allafrica.com/stories/200707170563.html
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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

GSM - Lawmakers Decry Poor Quality Service
http://allafrica.com/stories/200707260197.html
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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm

admin · Site Admin Joined: 25 May 2007 Posts: 5404

GSM Firms to Refund Subscribers

Vanguard
26 Nov. 2007

Mobile subscribers in the country are on their way to getting relief from service providers as the regulator, the Nigeria Communications Commission, (NCC) last Monday, secured preliminary victory in the case between it and the operators to enforce rules that would compel the GSM operators to compensate consumers for poor quality of service. Two of the leading operators, Messrs MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd. and Celtel Nigeria Ltd. had gone to court seeking an ex parte order to stop NCC from enforcing a directive forcing them to compensate customers for poor quality of service, (QoS).

This prompted the two companies to rush to the Federal High Court and obtained the ex-parte order. But a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos discharged the ex-parte order it had earlier granted MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd and Celtel Nigeria restraining the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) from compelling them to pay compensation to their subscribers over poor services. The ex-parte order was granted on the 2nd October, 2007. In his judgment made on November 19, 2007, Judge Dan D. Abutu, ruled in the suit, reference: Suit No; FHC/L/CS/909/2007, that the ex-parte order made in the case be discharged and that the matter be adjourned to November 29, 2007, for argument in the motion on notice dated October 25, 2007.

At the resumed hearing last Monday, lead counsel for NCC, Chief Chike Ofodile, SAN, opposed the prayer of the plaintiff's lawyer, Mr. Norrison Quaker, that the matter be further adjourned till November 20 or 21. But Chief Ofodile, told the court that any further adjournment was not in tune with normal practice especially when an order of ex parte drags on indefinitely. He argued further that going by Order 9 Rule 12 of the Federal High Court; "where such an order has not been discharged after 14 days starting from October 16, the order automatically lapses." The NCC lead counsel further pointed out that the prayer of the plaintiff smacks of disrespect to the court and the law which the defendant would not be a party to. "We oppose it and unless the court orders, we will resist the temptation to be a party to anything which smacks of disrespect to the court and the law", he submitted. These include the applications on the issue of transfer of the suit to Abuja and competence of the suit filed by Messrs MTN Nigeria and Celtel Nigeria. Dave Imoko, NCC Head of Public Affairs, said: "GSM customers expect good quality service from the operators and NCC will not spare any effort to ensure that Consumers are compensated whenever the providers fail to meet minimum standards."

Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, MTN Nigeria Corporate Services Executive, told Vanguard through SMS in response to our inquiries that along with other operators, they were exploring dialogue towards resolving all issues with the regulator. "MTN along with other GSM companies continues to dialogue with the NCC with respect to establishing mutual agreement on a variety of issues including compensation to customers." There was no response from Celtel despite separate messages to officials of its corporate communications department. The NCC had on June 20 2007 and July 29, 2007 to MTN Nigeria and Celtel Nigeria respectively, issued a 'Direction' to both firms in "pursuant to Section 53 (1) of Nigeria Communications Act 2003," the regulator informed all operators they were duty bound to provide subscribers with minimum QoS. "By virtue of the provision of Section 104 (a) of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 (NCA, 2003) all service providers shall in respect of their specific services meet such minimum standards of quality of service as the Commission may from time to time specify and publish; "In accordance with Section 104 (a) NCA, 2003, Condition 30.1 - 30.3 of the DML and other relevant guidelines, the Commission had specified and published the quality of service indicators for mobile services."

Subsequently, the NCC gave operators seven (7) days to comply within agreed minimum QoS or face sanctions. "In the event that (operator) fails to comply with this Direction, the Commission shall in accordance with the Nigerian Communications (Enforcement Processes etc) Regulations 2005 impose a fine in the sum of N5, 000, 000. 00 (five million naira only) and a further sum of N500, 000.00 (five hundred thousand naira only) per day that such penalty remains unpaid and for as long as the contravention persists".

Copyright © 2007 Vanguard

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May we be strengthened with the ability, willingness and capabilities to be good ambassadors of Nigeria contributing to its uplifting, rather than its detriment. - Cxsm