Telecom Operators Risk More Sanctions

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has concluded
plan to invoke another round of sanction on telecommunication operators
beginning from September if the quality of service remained the same.

The Communications Director, Public Affairs, Mr Tony Ojobo,
made this known to The Tide in an interview on Thursday in Abuja.

He said that at the time of the last sanction operators made
presentation on the issue of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) at the meeting
with the Commission.

Ojobo said that at the meeting the Commission agreed on a
medium base line of KPI that the operators needed to begin to work on progressively
until they met the Commission’s ultimate KPI.

He added that at the meeting the NCC gave the service
providers a   September  deadline to ensure a progressive improvement
on the poor quality of service.

“But at the meeting it was agreed that by September if the
quality of service remained as it was then the commission would invoke another
sanction.

“So because of that they are all working on their networks
to make sure that quality of service improves. We are noticing some improvement
in some of the networks in term of quality of service.

“It is not really what it should be but I think it is better
than what we had two months ago as at the time of the fine,’’ Ojobo said.

According to him, the operators wrote to NCC to update the
commission on what they had done so far to improve on the quality of service.

He said that the commission noticed that there were number
of networks that were expanding and also upgrading their networks.

Ojobo said that the operators were putting in new technology
to address the challenges that had resulted to the poor quality of service in
the country.

According to him, the issue of drop calls has really
reduced, few months ago every particular call made drops before one finishes
his conversation.

“That is an indication that there is some improvement, NCC
does depend on personal or consumers experience to determine weather there is
improvement until the commission undergoes a drive test.

Ojobo added that a drive test was when the commission’s
monitoring team drove through the city with their equipment which took the
frequency reading and later analysed with the reading that would be taken from
the premises of the service providers.

He said that the commission had its independent consultant
that carried out the drive test across the area that took the measurement which
would later be compared with what the commission obtained from the service
providers equipment.