The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) gathered all the stakeholders in the telecoms industry for the second leg of the launch of its 2017 Year of the Nigerian Telecoms Consumers campaign in Lagos. While the mobile network operators (MNOs), Lagos State and consumer rights advocacy groups endorsed the initiative, stakeholders say legacy industry challenges need to be addressed, reports LUCAS AJANAKU
Lagos-based barber, John Eze, is not happy with his service provider. His grouse is that he gets unsolicited text messages and calls marketing one service or the other on the network. Frustrated, he complained to a friend who told him he could stop the menace by confining such numbers to ‘blacklist’ in which case, he alone would be able to make calls to the numbers, not the numbers making calls to him.
He acceded to that suggestion and for some time, he appeared to get a temporary elixir. But one day, he opened the ‘blacklist’ and discovered almost 310 numbers consisting the 11-digit regular telephone numbers and short codes.
He was so angry and said to himself: “So this is how many times I have been distracted from my work. Sometimes, the calls come so late at night that they wake me up from sleep. At other times, they come when I am expecting important calls from my customers and family members. Sometimes, when I see missed calls, I try to return the calls because my kids often use their friend’s numbers to ‘flash’ me from school so I could call them back. I get disappointed when I discover that the calls actually came from mobile network operator.”
Eze’s experience is but one of such end users of telecoms services pass through in the country be it in voice call or mobile data services.
Inundated with a barrage of complaints, the NCC declared year 2017 as the Year of Nigerian Telecoms Consumers. Fresh interventions and regulatory insights on telecoms consumers’ right and protection were rolled out during the second leg of the flag off the campaign in Lagos.
More often MNOs, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content providers (value added services or VAS providers) inundate subscribers with telemarketing and unwanted messages which subscribers did not bargain for.
Over time there was no choice or options to opt out, stop or control the kind of messages that they want to be receiving on their phone from MNOs. Attempt to solve this and other complaints with the operators has been a tug of war for the over 154 million subscribers in the industry.
How it started
About 20 months ago when Prof Umar Danbatta assumed the leadership of the NCC as the Executive Vice Chairman, one of the very first steps he took was to constitute a committee on quality of service (QoS) to improve consumers experience on the network.
He believes the consumers made all the success stories telecoms sector has recorded in the nation’s economy since its liberalisation in 2001.
Last year, he launched an 8-point agenda which will drive the Commission’s activities until 2020. Item no six on the agenda reads: Protect and Empower Consumers’.
He mandated the Consumers Affairs Bureau (CAB) of the Commission to ensure the protection of the rights, privileges and interests of telecoms consumers, including the physically challenged groups, through adequate information dissemination programmes, effective policies and strategies that promote effective and efficient service delivery.
This, however, gave birth to the national campaign of the Year of the Nigerian Telecom Consumer which the commission flagged off in Abuja on March 15 and subsequently in Lagos on Wednesday May 17.
The Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, Chief officers and top managements from MNOs, ISPs, VAS and large telecoms consumers in the state were at the Blue Roof of the Lagos Television, Agidingbi to endorse the industry regulator’s year of consumer campaign.
Why Lagos campaign?
Quoting figures from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in the first quarter of 2016, Prof Dmabatta said Lagos voice subscriber base stood at 19.04million representing 12.8 per cent of the country’s subscribers and 12.62million internet subscription or 13.65 per cent.
He said: “The state is a home to many of the key players in the telecoms sector; so it is understandable that it has been selected as the flag off city after the major event in Abuja. The NCC 2017 Year of the Nigerian Telecom Consumer is remarkable because the consumer is in the center stage. We must also remember that these consumers together have made all the success stories we speak about possible in the telecom industry today.
“So, telecom consumer campaign focuses on the 2442 Do-Not-Disturb (DND) Service Code, the 622 toll free complaints line, Quality of Service, QoS and concerns about the electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation.
“The rates at which consumers receive telemarketing and unwanted messages from MNOs and ISPs would reduce drastically as consumers can now activate DND short code using the 2442 toll and forwarding unresolved complaints to NCC using 622 toll-free lines.”
From a customer base of slightly over 400, 000 in the height of NITEL’s glory, “we now have a combined subscriber base of over 150 million across the country. This boom and massive jump in mobile telephony have brought with it several challenges especially in terms of reliable service, network upgrade, expansion and maintenance, and increasing demand for capital expenditure injection into the telecom industry.
“In the midst of these, the average consumer runs the risk of just becoming a number. This danger therefore means that the customer suffers often times in silence in the hands of the operators primarily in the areas of dropped calls, failed calls often called Call Set Up Success Rate (CSSR) among others; this is exactly why this year is dedicated to the consumer.
Response to DND code
Prof Dambatta said two months after the national campaign was flagged off, there has been progress report in the activation of the ‘DND’ short code using 2442. He said more than one million consumers activated the 2442 DND code within two months, while more subscribers reported their unresolved complaints using NCC’s 622 toll-free lines in the same period.
The NCC is charged with ensuring that the average consumer gets the best satisfaction possible from the use of the line he has acquired. Thus, mindful of the pains and challenges of a growing economy and a rapidly developing industry, NCC intends to strike a balance. A balance albeit in favour of the consumer who most times is at the receiving end.”
Also speaking, NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management, Mr. Sunday Dare, said the initiative was leveraging on the two key components of improving QoS; informing and empowering consumers.
He said the NCC has already deployed several activities in its strategic plan to run a successful year of the consumer campaign with the support of the operators.
“Our goal is to make the consumer experience of the average Nigerian better. The drivers of the NCC 2017 Year of the Nigerian Telecom Consumer are the 2442 DND Service Code, the 622 toll free complaints line, Quality of Service, QoS and concerns about the electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation. These are the areas the information provided in the course of the campaign would focus on,” he said.
MNOs, ISPs react
Mobile network representatives present at the flag-off campaign in Lagos took turn to share their positions on the consumer initiative. They applauded the initiative and said it could not have come at a more auspicious time. The NCC had met with the MNOs on different occasions in Abuja on the subject matter.
They, however, assured consumers at the Lagos forum that the Do-Not-Disturb code is active on their networks and they have expanded their customers’ services networks in order to give adequate attentions to consumers’ complaints and challenges in the shortest possible time and best service delivery without any need to complain to the regulator.
MTN, GLO, Etisalat, Airtel, Smile, Ntel, Spectranet, among others, sent representatives while advocacy associations including National Association of Telecoms Consumers (NATCOM) Association of Licensed Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) among others, were also in attendance.
Why Lagos supports NCC
The Lagos State House of Assembly commended the NCC for tagging 2017- Year of the Nigerian Telecom Consumers which emphasises the protection and education of telecom consumers.
Its Speaker, Mr. Mudashiru Obasa, who spoke on the occasion, said NCC’s regulatory expertise has paid off in the industry that boasts of about 155million subscribers with about 20million of them domiciled in Lagos.
Represented by a member the House, Mr. Tunde Braimoh, the speaker said the state would support initiatives that will lead to consumers’ education and improved service delivery among operators. He said the House will not shy away from issues related to telecoms activities and the stakeholders, because of the relevance to the affairs of the populace.
He said: “NCC has done very well with regards to issues on consumer protection and the regulatory initiatives that lead to improved quality service delivery to the people. As the representatives of the people, Lagos State House of Assembly will not shy away from telecoms activities, because they touch the affairs of our people.
“However, we are being inundated with petitions regarding issues in the industry which informed our desire for easier channels to communicate with the regulator in finding lasting solutions to these challenges. Having said that, it is commendable that NCC’s regulations have paid off; for without such, there wouldn’t have been improvement on quality of service. We believe that the theme for this campaign will further endear NCC as consumer friendly regulator”.
The speaker also urged the NCC to mandate mobile network operators to also launch consumer products beneficial even to the downtrodden.
Hurdles
ATCON:
The President, ATCON, Olusola Teniola, praised the NCC for trying to address issues raised by at least 153 consumers, including its officials and staffers of the telcos. He said the regulator is trying to raise awareness about which code to use when they have challenges and which department to contact should their challenges remain unattended to. “This is commendable because it never used to be like this,” Teniola who is former CEO of IS Internet Solutions and now Client Partner, Detecon International, a subsidiary of Deutsch Telekom Group, Germany.
He, however, said the legacy challenges that have threatened the industry must be addressed for a win-win situation for all the stakeholders in the telecoms industry project. He said while there are technical challenges facing the sector, there are others that non-technical such as the foreign (forex) palaver. He said for the telcos to meet the International Telecoms Union (ITU’s) benchmark of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which the NCC is deploying, the challenges must be addressed.
He said Prof Dambatta has admitted that for there to be seamless service delivery in the country, no fewer than between 70,000 and 80,000 base transmission stations (BTS) will be needed. According to him, to meet the current huge deficit, more towers would have to be built with forex to meet the 30 per cent broadband penetration of next year according to the National Broadband Plan (NBP). The less than 30,000 BTS in the country are congested to take existing traffic, adding that there is need to resolve the logjam on the right of way (RoW) to build more towers and optic fibre cables to address the huge demand.
He said there is need for the NCC to collaborate with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on easing forex access by telcos, collaborate with security agencies on tekecoms equipment vandalism, collaborate with state governors on RoW and multiple taxation else the situation will be akin to beating up a child without giving him the room for improvement. “You will end up killing the child,” he said.
NATCOMS
NATCOMS President, Deolu Ogunbanjo also commended the NCC for the initiative. Like Teniola, he said the NCC should make the CBN see sense in giving telecoms equipment a new window to access forex. He said though the bank is encouraging SMEs to access forex, same gesture should be extended to the telecoms sector because of its enabling role to other sectors of the economy.
