Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive, Nigerian Communications Commission
Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive, Nigerian Communications Commission

With the $3.9billion fine slammed on MTN Nigeria still pending, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has warned telecom service providers against poor performance, stressing that such act will continually attract penalties.

The Executive Vice Chairman NCC, Prof. Umaru Danbatta who gave the warning in Port Harcourt, at the ongoing International Trade Fair said, “Let me use this opportunity to advise service providers to ensure that their networks are optimised for acceptable level of quality during this period.

“The commission intends to pay particular attention to how the service providers perform during this period and will monitor the level of their compliance against the Key Performance Indicators (LPIs), set out for quality of services rendered,” he added.

Danbatta, who was represented by NCC’s Head of Public Affairs, Reuben Mouka also allayed the fears of mobile telephone subscribers on the insinuation that telephone equipment and infrastructure could cause health hazards, stressing that it had been dismissed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He revealed that Internet penetration was now up to 93 million, with many Nigerians fully engaged with the social media.

The NCC boss said: “Given our plans for broadband expansion, the best is yet to come. Therefore, we must be proud that our country has come a long way to be identified as one of the fastest growing in telecommunications among comity of nations.

“As the regulator of the industry, we promise to sustain the tempo of growth, for the benefit of our country and its citizens.

“NCC is very consumer friendly. In fact, we rank consumers number one, in the scheme of our stakeholders, which include the government, the service providers, the media and the investors, among many others.”

He stated that the commission placed priority on the quality of service which consumers had been getting from the networks.

He noted that consumers complained more about poor performance by the service providers during the festive periods, when people had to move from one location to another.

“The commission is working very assiduously on all issues concerning quality of services in the industry, to ensure that the consumers are getting a fair deal in the use of their services,” he said.

He stated that consumers too had roles to play on the issue bordering on quality of service, especially avoiding the use of substandard and counterfeit devices, with the availability of different types of handsets in the market.

He said some of the devices had been used and dropped in other parts of the world, while some of the handsets did not meet international benchmarks for safety and other requirements.

“They do not only pose risks to the users, but also degrade the quality of service in the networks for others. We urge all telecom consumers to be wary of the source of telecom devices, which they use,” he said.

By Pita Ochai

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