MTN Risks NCC’s Sanction Over Service
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued MTN a query to explain why the Commission will not visit it with appropriate sanctions for the poor quality service in its Lagos network.
NCC has directed MTN to within 24 hours, furnish the Commission with detailed report on the developments and efforts being made to urgently address the problem.
The query is line with NCC’s commitment in enforcing all actions to deal with the issue of poor quality of service across networks as prescribed by a new regulation of NCC.
A statement signed by NCC’s Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Dr. Balarabe Sani and Director of Legal Services, Ms. Josephine Amuwa, which was made available to THISDAY, said “It has also been brought to our notice that the MTN Switch in Lagos is down and MTN has neither informed its subscribers, nor communicated this unfortunate development to the Commission as required.”
The statement added, “Please note that failure to respond as directed might result in the Commission invoking its powers to sanction MTN appropriately.”
Subscribers in Lagos and its environs have experienced difficulties in the use of their phones on the MTN network for some days now. Upon investigations by the Commission, it was discovered that MTN’s switch was down, a situation which ought to be communicated to the Commission, and brought to the knowledge of the subscribers by the company.
Shocked by the query issued by NCC, General Manager, Corporate Communications for MTN, Funmi Omogbenigun told Journalist that MTN suffered fire attack on its’ Ikoyi switch on Tuesday this week, which was a public holiday, and quickly rectified the damages caused by the fire the next day, and communicated the incident to NCC in writing, as well as to affected subscribers through text messages.
According to Omogbenigun, “A fire incident at our Ikoyi switch took place on the evening of 1st May. It was quickly rectified and we realised that it will take a few hours for the full impact of the resolution to be felt by all those who were affected. A letter was sent to the NCC on the 2nd May informing them of the incident. We posted notification to our customers on our twitter and Facebook pages. We also sent out radio announcements and SMS messages to affected customers. Please note that we deployed the fastest platforms of communication with our customers.”
The issue of poor quality of service has been a major challenge to subscribers and the regulator, the NCC. Subscribers have continued to suffer drop calls, poor voice clarity and difficulties in recharging their phones as a result of poor quality of service across networks.
Pleased with the query given to MTN by the NCC, President of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers, Mr. Deolu Ogunbanjo, in a chat with Journalist, said “MTN should not be singled out, as the issue of poor quality of service cuts across networks. I want NCC to also beam its search light on other network operators because the network is generally poor.”
NCC had in recent times, engaged the services of experts to carry out Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) tests on all networks, in order to find out the areas where operators are doing well as well as the areas they are not doing well. The commission said it would continue to monitor networks and ensure quality of service.
Source: Thisdaylive.com
