The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NCC

  • Subscribers’ body moves to bar operators from paying NCC’s fines

    Subscribers’ body moves to bar operators from paying NCC’s fines

    A subscriber body, the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), filed yesterday a matter in court seeking to stop the payment of the fine imposed on three global system for mobile (GSM) communication service providers in the country.

    In a suit filed before a Lagos High Court by the Trustees of NATCOMS against the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Licensed Trustees of Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, Airtel Networks Limited, Emerging Market Telecommunications Service Limited (Etisalat) and Globacom Limited as first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth defendants, the plaintiff is seeking an order of interlocutory injunction.

    According to a copy of the court papers, the plaintiff is seeking “an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the 1st defendant/respondent, its agents, privies, assigns including but not limited to its directors and officers, or any other persons or group of persons deriving authority through them from acting or purporting to act or giving effect to the 1st defendant/respondent’s decision purportedly imposing a fine of N185million on 3rd & 4th defendant/respondents each and N277.5milllion on the 6th defendant/respondent on account of poor quality service, pending the final determination of the substantive suit.”

    NATCOMS is also seeking “an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the 3rd, 4th & 6th defendants/respondents, their agents, privies, assigns including but not limited to their directors and officers, or any other persons or group of persons deriving authority through them from acting or purporting to act or giving effect to or complying with 1st defendant/respondent’s decision purportedly imposing a fine of N185million on 3rd & 4th defendants/respondents each and N277.5milion on the 6th defendants/respondents on account of poor quality service, pending the final determination of the substantive suit.”

     

  • NCC to issue more licences soon

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it will give licences to infrastructure providers it called InfraCos under its open access model of broadband deployment across the country.

    Its Director, Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, said a total of seven licences will be on offer for firms willing to take advantage of the regulator’s initiative to take broadband to all the nooks and crannies of the country.

    Ojobo, who spoke on the sideline in Abuja, said the seven InfraCos will be licenced to provide infrastructure in the six geo-political zones of the country while one will serve Lagos.

    According to him, based on the business plans of some of the firms that would be licenced, funding will be made available to them to serve as an incentive to roll-out and deploy services in rural areas where there might not be any attraction to do so.

    The regulator said the proposed industry structure consists of players in layers one and two

    “InfraCos shall be licensed, geographically focused entities. InfraCos shall provide wholesale Layer 2 transmission services on a non discriminatory, open access, price regulated basis. InfraCos may also provide Layer 1 (dark fibre) services on commercial basis;

    “The InfraCos shall focus on the deployment of metropolitan and regional fibre and provide end-to-end transmission services, to be available at points of access (PoAs), to access seekers. InfraCos may do this by leveraging existing inter-city fibre to deploy their services, purchase/lease transmission or long haul fibre capacity from other providers where available for the purpose of interconnection, as well as connect to international bandwidth providers,” NCC explained.

    According to the regulator, the customers for InfraCos include wholesale wireless last mile operators; retail service providers (RSPs) that require wholesale bandwidth; independent operators/ wholesale operators who require to lease transmission services; and other access seekers such as vertically integrated operators.

    It added that the second layer is the wholesale wireless last mile provider (WWLMP). According to NCC, the WWLMP shall interconnect with the InfraCos at their Points of Access (PoA), thereby creating an integrated broadband service.

    “The last mile connectivity shall be deployed using a mixture of existing technologies, including wireless and fibre optic broadband. The available 2.3GHz spectrum license shall be auctioned to provide last mile wireless access on a wholesale basis,” he said.

  • NCC fines MTN, Airtel, Glo N647m

    NCC fines MTN, Airtel, Glo N647m

    • Bars them from SIM cards sale

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has imposed fines totalling N647,500,000 million on three of the four global system for mobile (GSM) comunication service providers in the country.

    The affected operators are Airtel, Globacom and MTN. They are being sanctioned for failing to meet the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for quality of service in the month of January this year.

    Consequently, the three companies have been barred from further sale of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards with effect from next month. They are also barred from all promotions on their networks until they improve on the failed KPIs for which they are sanctioned.

    According to a statement, the details of the sanction showed that Airtel Network Ltd, and MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd, are to pay a fine of N185 million each while Globacom Ltd is to pay N277,500. In addition, each of the operators must pay the sanction amount on or before March 7 failure upon which each will be liable to pay N2,500,000 per day as long as the contravention persists.

    The sanctions, which were communicated to the three operators in a letter signed by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, said the Commission will carry out an audit of the three companies on March 1 and March 31 to ensure that no sale of new SIM cards takes place in any of the three networks within the period.

    The letter made reference to an earlier directive of December 10 last year which warned the operators that “if the quality of service does not improve by 31st December, 2013, the Commission will be compelled to direct operators to, among others, suspend the activation of new SIMs and subscribers until such an operator can prove that it has met the KPIs specified in the regulations”.

    According to Dr. Juwah, “ the Commission after careful collation of statistics from the Network Operating Centres (NOC) of all major networks operators for the month of January, has concluded that the service provided by some of the operators during the period fell below the KPIs published by the Commission in the Quality of Service Regulations, as amended.”

    While the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and Association of Licensed Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ALTON) have insisted that sanctions will not address the service quality problem, the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) has said the benefit of sanctions should go to subscribers.

    Its President, Deolu Ogunbanjo said such compensation for poor service quality could come by way of free air time to the subscribers. “The government earns revenue from the calls we make. The fines are paid to the coffers of the government without any direct benefits to the subscribers who suffer from the inadequacies of the operator,” he said.

    NCC added that the service providers shall not churn or delete inactive or (none revenue generating SIMs) from their networks during the period of March 1 to 31, warning that “any deviation or alteration of provisioning pattern (in terms of average daily number of provisioning) in the remaining days of February this year compared to the regular provisioning rates by the concerned service providers shall be construed as a breach to the directive.

  • Reps oppose 2.3GHZ broadband spectrum auction

    Reps oppose 2.3GHZ broadband spectrum auction

    House of Representatives has decried the planned sale of 2.3GHZ broadband spectrum by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).

    Its Committee on Communications has been mandated to review the pre-qualification criteria for companies wishing to participate in the proposed auction.

    The House also mandated the committee to look into future auctions of national telecommunications assets, with a view to including a requirement that interested companies be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (SEC).

    The lawmakers’ decision followed the adoption of a motion by Chris Azubogu (APGA, Anambra), who said most companies, which indicated interest in the auction, cannot be subjected to certain rules.

    He said: “Most of the major players in the industry – MTN, Airtel, Etisalat and others, all of whom have indicated a desire to participate in the auction, are privately-owned companies, which are not subject to the corporate governance and full disclosure standards obligatory for publicly- listed companies.

    “It is absence of standards, which makes our prime national telecommunications assets to be transferred to companies without proper authentication of their financial status.

    “Auction of communications licences to unquoted companies is not in the public policy interest of the Nigerian state and it is dangerous to the well-being of the industry”.

    Major telecommunications companies, including MTN, Glo, Airtel, Zinox among others were reported to have bid for the 2.3GHZ broadband spectrum licence, following the announcement for the auction by NCC.

     

  • Sanctions not solution to service quality, says Airtel chief

    Sanctions not solution to service quality, says Airtel chief

    Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya has said use of sanctions by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is not the solution to the quality of service in the country.

    He argued that the ‘fundamentals issues’ besetting service quality have to be tackled head on by all the stakeholders in the industry.

    Ogunsanya, who spoke yesterday at the telco’s Lagos head office in Ikoyi, Lagos, said the company has spent $1.5billion in the last three years to grow its network, saying customers satisfaction remains the cornerstone of its operations in the country.

    According to him, there are about 25,000 base transmission stations (BTS) in country that bristles with over 160 million people, adding that to get a satisfactory quality of service, the nation will need to do twice that number.

    He said despite the obvious disequilibrium in the number of BTS and population, the process of roll-out is not easy as it still takes about one year to secure approval from a litany of agencies that claim to regulate the sector to build one BTS. Added to these are wilful and inadvertent vandalism of optic fibre cables (OFC) by contractors and others who think they could make profit out of it.

  • NCC pays fine collected from telecom operators into treasury – official

    NCC pays fine collected from telecom operators into treasury – official

    Fines imposed on telecommunications operators for rendering poor services are paid into the government treasury, an official of Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) said over the weekend.

    The NCC spokesperson, Mr Reuben Muoka, made the position known in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    Muoka explained that by the law governing the commission, it was illegal to pay any fund charged as penalty to individuals.

    He said that the main reason the commission sanctioned the operators was to serve as deterrent and encourage improvement in services in the industry.

    “The law forbids NCC from sharing such money. How do you collect sanction money and begin to share to individuals?

    “The penalty is not for profit making but a deterrent for those who are not obeying the rules so that they can adhere to the rules.

    “I do not think that it makes any meaning when any operator defaults to begin to share the penalty money to individuals,” Muoka said.

    He said going by the year 2013, sanction fund that was retrieved from all the telecom operators could not be shared.

    “Even, if we tell the operators to compensate the customers to the equivalent of that amount, which would be about N9 per subscriber, don’t you think that the operators will be happy?

    “When the NCC sanctions them, they will improve their services because that can affect them in the global market by the time they approach their banks for loan.

    “The money realised from the penalty goes directly into government account, others we use for the monitoring exercises and other things,” Muoka said.

  • Telecoms operators accuse NCC of undue criticism

    Telecoms operators accuse NCC of undue criticism

    Telecommunications operators have declared that the high spate of criticisms against them do not augur well for the industry.

    The operators, under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTCOM), said the continuous bad publicity for the sector was portraying the industry in a bad light.

    Chairman of the association, Gbenga Adebayo, accused the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) of emphasising the few lapses of the operators.

    The NCC, he said, should be aware that the criticised telecoms companies are contributing immensely to the growth of the economy and should not be consistently blamed for the nagging problems in the industry.

    He said that continually portraying the operators in a bad light will discourage further investment in the sector.

    “It is unfortunate that our telecoms sector, which is currently driving the growth of the economy, is being perceived in a bad light because of quality of service issues,” Adebayo lamented.

    He added: “The sector is currently contributing more to the GDP than even the banking industry. Despite these achievements, the industry is still being perceived badly.

    “This trend is not good for us as it makes investors to shy away from this market because of the continuous negative criticisms.”

    The NCC last week expressed readiness to announce new sanctions for network operators that fail to meet the expected quality of service.

    Its Executive Director, Dr Eugene Juwah, said the commission is currently collating data for analysis on the companies that will be sanctioned.

  • MTN, stop this madness

    MTN, stop this madness

    SIR: It  has  become  imperative  to protest  in the  strongest  term, the  dastardly  act  of robbing telephone   subscribers  of  their  hard  earned money.  I  will  focus  on  MTN because  the  network  is  worse off  in  this  cheating  game.

    MTN like  other  networks  offer various  services  including information.  But,  what  really pains  me  is  the penchant by MTN  to enrol  subscribers  for  services for  which  they  did  not subscribe  to  in  the  first  place and then  charging  them  for  such.

    The  worst  part  of  it  is  that  it is  very  difficult,  if  not impossible,  to  opt  out  of  such service. Anytime  one  sends  a text  to  a  code  made  available by  the  network,  it  will  not  go through.

    Meanwhile,  one’s  account  is deducted  every  month.

    MTN  has  been  sending  ”Job Connect”  alert  to  my  line (08165660953)  through  38051 or  MTN N.  At  no  time  did  I subscribe  to  this  service  and my  attempt  to  stop  it  has been unsuccessful.  This  service  cost N100  per  month.  On  Dec  23, 2013, N100 was  deducted  from  my  account and  next  deduction  is  slated  for  Jan  20.

    I  am  very  angry  at  this.  This   has  happened  many  times.

    I  request  MTN to  refund  my  money  illegally deducted  from  my  account  and stop  sending  alert  to  me. Should  my  account  further  be deducted,  I  will  not  hesitate  to port  to  another  network.

    I  am  also  using  this opportunity  to  appeal  to  NCC and  National  Assembly  to  call MTN  to  order.  Subscribers  are made  poorer  daily  with  this kind  of  impunity  and daylight robbery.

    • Abimbola Blessing,

    Ikare-Akoko

  • Sanctioning telcos

    Sanctioning telcos

    •Govt should compel them to perform or face sanctions

    POOR quality of service (QoS) is a problem consumers have been enduring for years, in spite of the telecommunications revolution that the country witnessed in 2001 with the advent of the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication in the country. And this is causing the Federal Government a lot of concern.

    It was government’s concern that prompted Omobola Johnson, Minister of Communication Technology, to warn at a joint press conference by the ministry and the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) of Nigeria, that government will no longer condone poor service delivery to telecoms subscribers: “Henceforth, it is no longer business as usual, and operators must rise up to redress the current poor state of service delivery”, she said.

    Over the years, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the regulatory agency for the telecoms sector, had taken some actions to remedy the situation. For instance, last year, the four major mobile network operators (MNOs), MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat were fined a total of N1.17billion ($7.38million). That the QoS challenges persist suggest that firmer actions needed to be taken against the telecoms providers.

    It is against this background that we welcome the Federal Government’s decision to sanction or prosecute erring ones among them over the matter and sundry other concerns that have been agitating the minds of subscribers. The collaboration between the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology and the CPC is pointer to the fact that it will, henceforth, be business unusual on the part of the telcos. It is good that the government seems set to compel them to improve on their operations or face sanctions. The same telcos that cannot cope with normal service delivery have compounded the problem with unsolicited messages as well as telemarketing calls they deliver to subscribers on their networks.

    At the root of the poor QoS is failure of the operators to expand their facilities. And if they are doing this at all, it is not commensurate with the traffic. Yet, about N979billion was to be ploughed into network expansion this year alone.

    The December 31 deadline to them to meet minimum requirements for service delivery, failing which they will not be allowed to embark on further network expansion initiatives is welcome. Indeed, it is surprising that the operators had to be given a deadline on this. Perhaps more shocking is the continued selling of SIM cards by them, when those already on the networks are not having value for their money.

    Of course we are not unmindful of the fact that the telcos have their own peculiar challenges. These include challenges in the area of deploying or maintaining infrastructure, vandalisation of their equipment, multiple taxation, power inadequacy as well as the prohibitive costs of doing business in Nigeria. But the profits posted by the telcos show that they can still do better if only they reckon that subscribers, as customers, are kings.

    The fact is, the telcos are also not helping matters. In some other countries, they cut cost through co-location, for instance; which is sharing of some facilities like masts, etc., instead of hoisting individual masts. The procurement, running and maintenance costs are thus shared among the collaborating operators.

    It’s high time the government rescued telephone subscribers. Its threat to sanction or prosecute erring telcos this time around should not be an empty threat; it should be sincere about it at least to prove that Nigeria is not a place where companies can take Nigerians for granted and get away with it.

    As a matter of fact, that the government itself is wading into the matter suggests that the NCC is not working as it should. Perhaps it is high time the government reorganised the commission itself.

  • ATCON warns against backlash of NCC’s policy

    ATCON warns against backlash of NCC’s policy

    The Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has warned the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) against implementing its open access model for broadband deployment.

    It said a similar policy by the regulator a few years ago affected internet service providers (ISPs).

    ATCON’s President, Lanre Ajayi, said the first step in a new policy should be its environment impact assessment (EIA).

    He urged the NCC to undertake an EIA of the broadband policy.

    He said there could be a backlash of a good policy.

    According to him, a policy by the NCC a few years ago which stopped ISPs from operating at a particular band depleted the number of players from 92 to less than 30, adding that the policy might also have a similar ripple effect in the industry.

    “Have we done the socio-economic impact assessment the policy? I think we should do the socio economic impact of the policy before we jump into its implementation,” Ajayi warned.

    Under the open access model, which the NCC intends to implement, a total of seven companies called InfraCos will be licensed to provide broadband services in the six geo-political zones of the country will one of the InfraCos will operate in Lagos.

    NCC Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Dr Eugene Juwah, said the government would provide funds to the InfraCos based on their plan.

    But some players in the sector said it could lead to unfair practices.

    One of the stakeholders in the industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, lamented that the NCC would spend public funds on the companies the regulator will be licensing to provide broadband services to the citizens.

    “When you deploy public funds to a private investor, such funds will be used to have undue advantage over the players in the industry,” he said.

    But the EVC said there was nothing esoteric about the government offering subsidy to investors, arguing that the earliest players in the mobile telephone services enjoyed tax holidays for about five years, adding that even after the expiration of the five years, some of them were not ready to pay.

    Juwah said since the project for which subsidy was being provided was for the public good, there was nothing wrong with providing such an incentive, arguing that fears of the players in the segment was baseless.