27th April, 2012
Senator Gbenga Ashafa representing Lagos East Senatorial District, has moved a motion for the examination of the activities of GSM service providers in the country.
The motion is to beam search light on the epileptic services the GSM providers are rendering to the public.
He noted in the motion which was unanimously supported by senators that telephone subscribers were unhappy over the poor quality of services being provided by telecom operators.
His complaints include persistent drop calls and resultant loss to the users that are billed for calls not utilised; inter-connectivity problems arising from congestion and poor quality network as well as calls between networks that are hardly audible and sometimes distorted.
He expressed concern that despite the poor quality of services, operators are still flooding the market with different promotions in order to boost their revenue but failing to ensure customer satisfaction.
He also noted that the burgeoning clientele of the GSM service providers has not been matched with equal re-investment by the service providers.
He noted further that due to the consistent outcry by the public, the NCC have made efforts to monitor network performance based on certain Key Performance Indicators (KPI) which include call set up rate, call completion rate, stand alone dedicated control channel, handover success rate and transmission rate.
“It has been reported that the average performance is still below 65 percent. This is unacceptable,” he added
Ashafa felt disturbed that subscribers were being defrauded by these operators due to the poor quality of services.
“It can be seen from the rewards of their promotions and advertisement drives that they are smiling to the bank while the subscriber feels shortchanged. The subscribers should enjoy good services that is commensurate with their money,” he said.
Contributions were made by Senators Ayogu Eze of Enugu North, Chris Ngige of Anambra Central, Olufemi Lanlehin of Oyo South, Gilbert Nnaji of Enugu East, Boluwaji Kunlere of Ondo South, Smart Adeyemi of Kogi West, Babafemi Ojudu of Ekiti Central and Ibrahim Gobir of Sokoto East.
It was resolved at the end of sitting that the Senate Committee on Communications should investigate the effectiveness of services provided by telecommunication companies in the country.
In addition, the committee is to examine the effects of arbitrary deployment of masts on the health of Nigerians.
—Jamiu Yisa