Senate To Probe GSM Providers Capabilities

The Senate is to investigate the effectiveness of the Global System of Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) service providers in the country.

The Senate is also to investigate reasons why the service providers were not adhering to the mast cohabitation directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the regulatory agency.

The Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who presided over last Thursday’s plenary session said the problem was not only with the NCC, but with every regulatory agency.

Ekweremadu challenged all regulatory agencies to rise up to their responsibilities saying the laws in Nigeria were as good as the laws of other countries.

“The point has been made that Nigerians deserve better service in terms of the GSM services we have today.

“But I have to add that our regulatory agencies not just NCC alone need to wake up to their responsibilities. The laws we have in Nigeria are as good as the ones we have in any other part of the world.

“The weak link there is the issue of the regulatory agencies getting these service providers to comply with the rules and regulations we have in our country. So they need to wake up to their responsibilities.’’

The deputy senate president also challenged senators to wake up to their responsibilities and take the issue of oversight seriously.

He also expressed the hope that efforts of the Senate would pay off and Nigerians would in future get better services.

The Senate decisions were taken after a debate on a motion sponsored by Sen. Gbenga Ashafa (ACN, Lagos) and 43 other senators on the deteriorating services of GSM providers.

Ashafa observed that in spite of all the licenses issued, subscribers were extremely disgruntled over the poor quality of services being provided by the GSM companies.

“The complaints include persistent drop calls and resultant loss to users who were billed for calls not completed and also interconnectivity problems arising from congestion and poor quality network,’’ Ashafa said.

He expressed concerns that in spite of the poor quality of service, operators were still flooding the market with promotions of all kinds in order to boost their revenues.