Disruption Of Services: Blackberry Subscribers To Be Compensated

Affairs Bureau of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), says subscribers of Blackberry services will be compensated for the disruption of services last week.

Uduma told newsmen in Lagos on Monday that the compensation would be in form of extension of subscription.

She said that Research In Motion (RIM), the producer of BlackBerry, had already issued a statement that it would compensate subscribers.

‘’At the global level, RIM has published that it is going to give some sort of compensation, that is extension of subscription,’’ the director said.

She assured consumers that they would receive their compensation

as soon as RIM was ready.

‘’Airtel had already sent text to its Blackberry customers that it is going to extend their subscription.

‘’As soon as RIM gives it, it will be passed on to every user,’’ Uduma said.

She said that the Blackberry service failure was worldwide, hence it was not the fault of the Nigerian telecom operators.

The report stated that users of Blackberry services had some disruptions last week which affected customers in the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

The problem was said to have been caused by hardware failure.

The report also said that the National Association of Telecom subscribers (NATCOMS) in Nigeria had called on service providers to compensate subscribers through extension of subscription.

Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, NATCOMS President, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Lagos on Friday.

“Although Blackberry service is a franchise to blackberry users in Nigeria, but adequate compensation, in terms of extension of subscription, should be provided,’’ he said.