Poor services: NCC fines four GSM operators N1bn

Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson

The Nigeria Communications Commission has said four Global System for Mobile Communications operators are to pay a cumulative sum of N1.17bn penalty for poor Quality of Services.

In a statement made available to newsmen on Saturday in Lagos, NCC said MTN, Etisalat, Airtel and Globacom were being sanctioned for poor QoS rendered in the months of March and April.

The commission said details of the penalties had been communicated to the different operators through letters.

It stated that the letters were signed by the Director, Legal and Regulatory Services, Ms. Josephine Amuwa, and the Head of Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, Ubale Maska.

The regulatory body said MTN and Etisalat were to pay N360m each, Airtel would pay N270m, while Globacom attracted a penalty of N180m.

“All the operators are to pay the penalties on or before May 21, 2012 or be liable to payment of additional N2.5 million per day for as long as the contravention persists.

“The penalties are as a result of the contravention of the provisions of the Quality of Service Regulation by the NCC.

“The operators failed to meet with the minimum standard of quality of service, including the key performance indicators,” the statement read.

According to the statement, the commission has been monitoring the performance of the operators on the different parameters as provided.

It said the result showed that the service providers contravened the provisions.

“Paragraph 13 & Schedule 3, Paragraph 2 of the Quality of Service Regulation 2012, provides that any company which contravenes this provision will be liable to pay fine.

“The company is liable to pay the sum of N15m for each parameter for a service contravened in the month of March, 2012.

“A further sum of N2.5m for each parameter for a service for each day the contravention continued throughout the month of April, 2012 will be paid by the operators,” the statement said.

NCC noted that the performances in January and February were below the specified thresholds but decided to “take these periods as grace period.”

The News Agency of Nigeria quoted the Executive Vice Chairman of the commission as saying that the current penalties were a demonstration of the new regime of QoS management in the telecommunications industry