NCC to shut down MTN, AirTel, Glo and Etisalat if they dont pay the 1.7B Fine

From PunchNG :

The Nigerian communications Commission is seeking a court order to shut down the operations of GSM companies in Abuja over failure to pay the N1.17bn penalty recently imposed on them.

A reliable source at the NCC, who spoke with our correspondent under the condition of anonymity on Tuesday, said the regulatory body planned to shut down the administrative offices of the affected network operators after securing the court order.

The NCC had recently penalised the four GSM companies operating in the country, to the tune of N1.17bn, for poor quality of service rendered to subscribers in March and April, 2012. Though MTN was requested to pay N360m; Airtel, N270m; Etisalat, N360m; and Globacom, N180m, they had failed to meet the May 25, 2012 deadline. As such, the affected operators have been incurring additional N2.5m per day as penalty for as long as the contravention persists.

For failure to pay the stipulated fine, however, the source said the NCC would get the court order and shut down the administrative offices of the errant operators.

He explained that it was not in the attitude of the NCC to shut down base stations in case of infraction on the part of any operator because such an action would have far-reaching implications on the subscribers.

When contacted, NCC Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said, “NCC is weighing all the options that are available to it as a regulator. A regulator is a regulator. NCC is a lawful organisation and we will always ensure that we are on the side of the law in anything we do. There are certain decisions that are strategic to us and we don’t like talking about them before taking actions.”

A senior official of one of the affected telcos, who pleaded anonymity, said the action, if taken, would affect the country’s over 99 million subscribers as well as the stability of the industry.

Reacting to the assertion that NCC does not shut down base stations, the source said shutting down the administrative offices would have a ripple effect on the smooth running of the base stations too.

“If NCC shuts down our offices in Abuja, who will direct the field offices maintaining our base stations?”, he asked.

“And if the diesel runs out of the generators serving the base stations engines, who will refill them?,” he asked again.

“The base stations will go down and it will affect the over 99 million subscribers, ” he said.

The official said the affected telecoms operators had hub sites in Abuja that could serve as many as 60 other base stations that could be spread across three or four states.

“If they go down, you can’t predict the adverse effect that could have on the subscribers. Therefore, the plan to shut down our offices is disruptive to service and disruptive to our business,” he said.

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I want to agree with NCC on trying to make these guys meet standard, buh 360M for fine-ahhhbahhh, when will they have money to upgrade the services if you keep fining them this high? I took the liberty to check through the Quality of Service Benchmark by NCC for these Operators http://www.ncc.gov.ng/technical-standards/qos.html and for March/April 2012 with a KPI of >=98% for CSSR (Call Setup and Success Rate), The lowest was Etisalat with 94.23%.

I understand that they didnt meet 98% but at 94% + and you are giving 360Million fine ... Oga ooo

NCC should find better ways to discipline its operators as shutting down the operators will only bring peoples wrath on NCC and not their acclaimed crappy operators, Like someone reported "If they shut down the Operators, Na OccupyNCC ooo if they obstruct ma BB subscription-lol"

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There are indications that the four mobile operators that were fined N1.17 billion by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, over poor quality of service may have agreed to pay the fine next week.

It was gathered that the development came after a crucial meeting between the regulator and the operators, Wednesday.

The operators had promised to pay by next week with a submission of how they would progressively improve the quality of their network over the next nine months. it was also agreed that the improvement and advancement to the networkswere going to be monitored by the NCC.

Also that the quality was expected to increase progressively over the period while NCC engineers and that of the operators would jointly fine tune QoS Key Performance Indicators.

Are they going to pay the whole fine? That we dont know ...

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THE lingering crisis between the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the major Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) operators may soon be over.

The NCC had slammed a N1.17 billion fine on the firms over poor services, which the companies vowed not to pay.

It was learnt on Thursday that after a meeting, which lasted for four hours on Wednesday night in Abuja, the operators agreed to resolve the issue amicably.

Briefing The Guardian on the outcome of the meeting, the NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said yesterday that the operators had agreed to pay the fine early next week, possibly on Monday.

Ojobo said the quartet of MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and Etisalat’s decision to pay the fine was reached after NCC listened to their presentations on the measures they had taken to improve on the quality of their services nationwide.

He said the NCC would be conducting a monthly assessment of the operators’ services and a comprehensive test every three months to be at breast with developments and intervene when necessary in the sector.

Ojobo however, said he could not announce if the contravention charges of N2.5 million per day would be paid along with the N1.17 billion fine by the operators.

The NCC had in the circular dated May10, 2012 warned that the failure of the affected firms to pay the fine on or before May 25, 2012 would attract a further payment of N2.5 million for each parameter the contravention lasts.

Going by the calculation, the operators would have by yesterday jointly incurred an extra N200 million as contravention charges.

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