MD Of GSM Companies Shun NCC Meeting

There seems to be no end to the agonies of telecommunications subscribers on poor service being rendered by the network operators as the meeting called by the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday did not produce any fruitful outcome with the absence of the telecoms companies chief executive officers.

The meeting held at the CPC headquarters yesterday in Abuja borders on poor signal, inability to connect, difficulty in recharging call credit, unsolicited caller tunes and SMS, credit wipe off, credit deduction for unsolicited services among others.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, Director General of CPC, Mrs. Dupe Atoki, said the concern of CPC was the poor service delivery by the operators, adding that the CPC had continued to be inundated with complaints from subscriber base of 120 million.

“From the record of complaints in CPC, the commonest challenges confronting consumers are those of poor network service, unsolicited services, unlawful deductions/wrong billings, exploitative automated services, unauthorised SIM swaps, poor internet service and poor customer service,” she noted.

According to her, in spite of the fines imposed on the operators by the NCC at various times to serve as a deterrent, it does not directly assuage the condition of the consumers who are denied value for their money on a daily basis.

Responding to questions from journalists, the DG said the council had the power to seek redress in the court of law over poor service, ‘the law criminalises anyone that provides service that causes loss.’

Atoki however, stated that the council would prefer to partner the operators to improve on the quality of service rendered rather than seek redress.

The meeting, which was specifically for CEOs of the telecoms companies in Nigeria to engage the council and come up with a policy initiative that would provide comfort and protection for subscribers,  had in attendance the representatives of the CEOs who do not have the final say to the problem on ground.

The absence of the CEOs of the telecoms companies left the DG with no choice when she said another meeting would be called, “as you can see, many CEOs are not here, we will call another meeting after this.”

Speaking at the event, the Executive Commissioner, NCC, Mr. Ubale Maska, said fines and compensations are two different things, saying that NCC imposes fines on network providers in order to improve on the quality of services rendered.


He added that most unsolicited short code messages sent to subscribers did not originate from the operators but some illegal ones who target a range of numbers to swindle people.
Maska clarified that fines imposed on telecoms providers cannot be channelled back  to the customers considering the number of the current subscriber base which is now 120 million.

He noted that if NCC put a measure in place that would prevent operators that do not have the capacity to accommodate new subscribers, there would be public out cry from Nigerians over such measures.