Stakeholders in the telecommunications industry at the weekend, said that the call on subscribers of telecoms services in the country to take operators to court for poor quality of service by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), was damning indictment of the regulator, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report.
According to them, the regulator is abdicating its responsibility and understanding of the basic challenges of the industry.
NCC is a purposely built public institution standing on the tripod of the government; operators; and the consumers.
It is supposed to withstand pressures from the three and do the right thing according to the law.
Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), berated NCC for taking sides with the consumers, arguing that the Commission was well aware of all the issues responsible for poor quality of service.
Adebayo said that, “they (NCC) cannot deny that the environmental issues are not there. They manage the system. If a man says I am unhealthy, how healthy is he. We just received a report from one of the States (Osun) that they are mandating their Agencies to prevent diesel trucks from providing diesels to operators’ sites. What people will not understand is that when the sites run out of fuel, they power-down. When that happens, subscribers at such area should know that is will be difficult for calls to originate or be received from such zone.”
“More than that, has NCC ensured that the issues are resolved, the site re-opened and subscribers are back on traffic. On situation like this, everybody blames the service providers for poor quality service,” he added.
He said that, “it is easy to apportion blames and see things from a particular angle. The question I would like to ask is: What is the NCC doing or what have they done to deal with the issues we put before them? Yes, operators need to work on capacity and technology, but as the regulators, what practical steps have they taken to resolve those issues
“It is even wrong for NCC to go to the extent of supporting subscribers to prosecute the operators.” Adebayo added.
But DeoluOgunbanjo, president, National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMMs), said that NCC as the industry regulator has the right to sanction operators for poor quality of service which she has done previously.
He reiterated the demand by his Association for N5,000 worth of airtime per subscriber as compensation for poor quality.
“We will meet on Wednesday this week with our lawyer to decide the next line of action on the case in court,” Ogunbanjo added.
Elsewhere, Engr. LanreAjayi, president, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (Atcon), explained that a consumer can sue an operator if there is breach of agreement.
Ajayi said that “I don’t know if operators entered into any agreement with subscribers to provide quality of service.
“More so, I don’t think any operator will deliberately provide poor quality of service in a competitive business environment. If operators are unable to provide quality of service, there must be issues that are preventing them, I think it is those issues that must be addressed and not going into legal battle.” He added.
It would be recalled that Reuben Muoka, spokesperson of the commission, had last week, said that NCC will give necessary support to any consumer ready to prosecute any telecommunication operator in the country over poor services.
According to Muoka, prosecution of telecommunication service providers for poor services was another way to compel them to get their acts together in service delivery.
He said that the NCC Act did not permit NCC to prosecute any service provider based on individual complainant.