Some of the telecoms operators who were at
the weekend penalised by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, over poor
quality of service have reacted to the decision, describing it as shocking and
surprising.
The operators said poor quality of service
was not only attributable to network capacity but also by other factors beyond
their control. They appealed that the NCC should show understanding of the
critical industry-wide challenges by pushing for the telecommunications
industry to be declared critical national infrastructure rather than rooting
for penalties.
It’s shocking—Etisalat
For instance, Etisalat CEO, Mr Steve Evans,
while reacting to the development, said it was shocking to his company to
receive the news of the penalty, particularly when the same NCC had in the past
three years of Etisalat operations in Nigeria, recognised it as the number one
quality operator by the various measures conducted and published by the
regulator.
He however noted that “the failure to hit
some of the quality measures could not be attributed alone to capacity
expansion but also by other factors which represent industry-wide challenges.
Foremost among these is the absence of reliable power which necessitates that
everyone of over 3000 cell sites needs to be served by two generators which run
24 hours a day and need regular maintenance and provision of weekly supplies of
diesel.
…MTN too
Meanwhile, immediately after the penalty
was announced, MTN Nigeria had reacted, outlining part of the problems that
culminated into the mess in quality of telecom services, adding that it was
still committed to ensuring the best quality of service for its teeming
customers.
The company’s Corporate Services Executive,
Mr Akinwale Goodluck, said inadequate power supply, lack of adequate security
leading to indiscriminate vandalisation of its facilities and multiple
regulation and taxation were also responsible for the weak service quality
provided by the operators within the time under review.
According to Goodluck, MTN generates up to
80 per cent of its power requirements, expending billions of Naira annually on
diesel alone.
He said: “MTN suffers more than 70 cuts to
its fibre on a monthly basis. Indeed, in April this year, MTN had cause to publish
full page announcements in the newspapers, alerting the public to the growing
incidence of criminal damage to MTN’s infrastructure in various parts of the
country and the impact on quality of service in the country, particularly the
South East, as well as Port Harcourt, and Onitsha, Lagos, Kano and Abuja.
“Moreover, the heightened insecurity in
several parts of the country also limited MTN’s ability to carry out routine
maintenance and emergency repairs” he added.