Senate Threatens Telecoms Operators Over Poor Network Service

Following the poor telecommunications services currently being experienced in most parts of the country, the Nigerian Senate has warned all telecommunications companies in the country to either improve their services or face stiff sanctions

The Chairman of Nigerian Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Gil Emeka Nnaji, said the warning has become necessary following the persistent poor network services being experienced in all parts of the country.

Nnaji said all mobile network providers that fail to comply with the warning will be pushed out of the country.

He said the Senate was ready to  invoke the necessary legislative provisions to make GSM operators in Nigeria sensitive to the sufferings of the masses on the poor quality of telecommunication service.

The senator added that the Nigerian public deserves nothing short of the best in the area of telecommunications, considering the huge investments the Federal Government had made in the sub-sector, primarily in the aspect of tax holidays upon licence acquisition to enable the operators deploy sufficient infrastructure.

He explained that the warning  followed distress calls and messages from Nigerians about the incessant cases of dropped calls, bad network reception, unauthorised deductions of airtime.

“The Senate as a responsive and socially-responsible institution, after series of interactive sessions to address the lingering public outcry, subsequently decided to ascertain the level of culpability or otherwise of these network service providers with a view to advising the plenary appropriately,”  he said.

The four major telecommunications operators in the country, MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat, were  recently fined  N1.17 billion by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, for poor quality service on their networks.

The penalties, according to NCC,  were as a result of the contravention of the provisions of the quality service regulations as the operators failed to meet the minimum standard of quality of service including the key performance indicators (KPIs).

—Henry Ojelu