NCC queries Telecom operators for poor service quality

ALL trunks are busy; please try again later.” “Your call cannot be completed now; please try again later.” “The number you have dialled is incorrect; please check the number and dial again.”
Mobile telephone service quality has hit an all-time low. Not only subscribers are worried; the regulators are also disturbed.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NNC) has written to all the network operators to explain why service quality has suddenly crashed.
NCC spokesman Tony Ojobo told The Nation yesterday that the commission had been inundated with complaints over the sudden decline in service quality.

The operators are expected to explain why the situation has gone so bad. The regulator will deploy its engineers to test the facilities of the operators to see if they meet the key performance indicators (KPIs) they signed.

“We have observed that the service quality has gone down again. We have received complaints from subscribers who said they have tried to do one thing or the other on the networks, which was futile. Based on these complaints, NCC has asked the operators to explain why the situation is so. We are not stopping at that; we are also deploying our engineers to test their (operators’) facilities,” Ojobo said.

The NCC recently lifted its ban on all promos and lotteries that ride on the network. Sector analysts say the decline in the quality of service may not be unconnected with the lifting of the promos and lotteries.
National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) President, Deolu Ogunbanjo, said the NCC ought not to have lifted the ban because doing so has unwittingly led to congestion on the networks.

“Our members have complained bitterly about the anguish they go through in the hands of their service providers. They spend their hard-earned money to buy airtime for which they hardly get the full value. We have written to the NCC. We feel strongly that lifting the ban on promos and lotteries is responsible for the congestion on the network,” he said in a telephone interview.

Ogunbanjo said the body had petitioned the NCC, asking for compensation for the subscribers and warning that should the regulator fail to do this by the end of this month, the group would have no choice but to go to court. “We have appealed to the NCC to compensate our members. If it fails to do so by the end of this month, we will be forced to seek legal solution to the problem of our members. We are going to write another letter to them (NCC),” he said.

Ojobo said the NCC is also looking at the network to see if it is the decision to lift the ban that has caused disruption in services. We lifted the ban on promos and we have being looking at it to establish whether it has any impact on the network. We are studying all that,” he said.
Many subscribers have been complaining about poor service quality. It is either they can’t get to load their airtime or make calls.

The Nation