Poor telecom services: Subscribers' clamour for compensation

IF they had an option, many would have by now
dumped completely the services of the Mobile
Network Operators (MNOs), going by recent
happenings in Nigeria’s telecommunications
sector.
This is because of increasing poor services as
witnessed in the number of dropped calls;
aborted short message service (SMS), to
countless number of futile attempts to make
calls. When mobile phones are placed side by
side, the possibilities are high to hear that ‘the
number you have dialed is not reachable.’
Indeed, from Lagos, to Abuja, Ondo to Port
Harcourt, Jos to Enugu, Borno to Sokoto, quality
of service, especially from the GSM operators,
leaves much to be desired.
While the challenges of poor quality of service
remain perennial, defiling virtually all solutions,
in the last one month, some percentages of the
over 150 million active telephone subscribers
have been subjected to another round of torture
from both the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC) and the MNOs. Subscriber
Identification Modules (SIM) cards were
deactivated from the networks.
There had been claims that about 40 million
subscribers failed to meet the specified SIM
registration requirements. Some of the
telephone lines where pre-registered, which has
become a huge offence in Nigeria. Others are
that some subscribers’ biometric details (fingers
and facial) have been found to be either missing
or defective.
Genesis of deactivation
NCC claimed to have discovered some anomalies
during the hamonisation and verification
exercises of the SIM data sent to them by the
operators last year and had by September 2014
returned some huge numbers of affected SIM
cards.
Specifically, at a media briefing in Lagos, NCC’s
Head of Compliance and Monitoring Unit, Efosa
Idehen, said that in September 2014 alone, NCC
discovered that from the SIM data the operators
sent to the commission for hamonisation, some
were found to be defective and had to be
returned to the operators for proper and
complete checks.
According to him, about 18.6 million SIM data
were sent back to MTN Nigeria; 7. 49 million
sent to Airtel; 2.23 million to Globacom and
10.46 million to Etisalat, which made a total of
38.8 million
Idehen however, said the monitoring exercise
done recently by the NCC showed that operators
are partially committed to the exercise.
According to him, out of the about 18.6 million
SIM registration data found to be defective on
MTN network, only about 1.6 million have been
barred. He explained that what MTN actually
did was to put the affected subscribers on
“Receive Calls Only”, which means the
subscribers cannot put a call through to another
network.
“With this there was no compliance from MTN.
During our visit to Airtel, the
telecommunications service has fully barred 2.3
million from their networks. These were SIM
data found to be incomplete. At Globacom, 3.5
million lines have been barred also from their
network. Etisalat had barred 3.3 million,” he
stated.
Two weeks ago, about 10.7 million subscribers,
who were barred from their networks laid siege
to various service outlets of the operators to get
re-connected. Some of the subscribers, who
spoke to The Guardian, claimed to have been
going to these centres for days, yet they could
not re-register, especially MTN subscribers,
owing to large number of users. The service
provider has no adequate facilities to reconnect
the affected lines. This further puts customers
to some harrowing experiences without
adequate compensations.
Impact of latest sanction
LAST week’s N120.4 million sanctions slammed
by the NCC on the networks operators further
compounded subscribers agony, as those who
were hitherto partially deactivated have been
completely removed from the networks.
Furthermore, the sanction has forced the MNOs
to bar, now completely, the remaining SIM cards
found to be defective on their networks. As
such, more customers have continued to throng
the service centres to see the possibilities of
getting reconnected because of the essential
nature of the telephone lines.
“I am telling you if not that telephone has
become extremely essential, I would have dump
all of them. None of the operators has human
sympathy. I have been at this centre for the past
five hours and nothing concrete seems to be
on”, said Jolaosho, an MTN subscriber, who
called for stiffer penalties and sanctions on the
operators for making subscribers go through
harrowing experiences in re-registration.
Previous Sanctions
SANCTIONS are not new to Nigeria’s telecoms
sector. In fact, NCC, under former Executive
Vice Chairman, Dr. Eugene Juwah, imposed
several sanctions on telecoms operators. It has
become obvious that more will still come. The
NCC had on May 11, 2012, sanctioned MTN,
Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat, a cumulative fine
of N1.17 billion, for poor quality service on
their networks for the months of March and
April, 2012.
The regulator ordered the operators to pay the
fine on or before Friday May 25, 2012, or risk
sanction of additional payment of N2.5 million
per day for as long as the contravention
persists.
The affected operators had refused to pay the
initial amount of N1.17 billion, let alone the
daily penalty of N2.5 million that later
accumulated to N32.5 million per telecoms
operator, amounting to N130 million for the
four telecoms operators on the 13th day after
the expiration of the May 25, 2012.
Again in April 2014, NCC sanctioned three out of
the four major network operators—MTN
Nigeria, Globacom and Airtel, the sum of N647.5
million for breach of key performance
indicators (KPIs) and poor quality service for
the month of January 2014. It however gave
Etisalat a clean bill as it met all the set KPIs as at
then.
The telecoms regulator, in letters dated
February 19, 2014, addressed to each of the
affected companies, said after collating statistics
from the network operating centres of the
operators in the month of January 2014, it
discovered that the services provided by MTN,
Airtel and Globacom fell below the KPI
published by NCC in 2013.
A breakdown of the sanctions indicated that
Globacom was fined N277.5 million for three
breaches, while MTN and Airtel were asked to
pay N185 million each for two breaches.
Increased calls for compensation for subscribers
WHILE NCC insisted it is generating money for
the Federal Government, there have been calls
that the money from fines on telecoms
operators, especially the ones that border on
poor service quality, should be shared among
telecoms subscribers, which they argued, suffer
the brunt of the inactions of the operators.
Responding to email enquiries from his London
based home, a Nigerian telecoms expert,
Kehinde Aluko, supported claims that
subscribers should be compensated.
Aluko said while the MNOs are not sometimes
totally to be blamed for poor services because
of some of the challenges inherent in Nigeria,
especially the erratic power supply and
vandalism, “I concur 100 per cent that operators
should compensate subscribers, at least by
giving them some free airtime. This will settle
some dusts in that regards.”
Speaking to The Guardian, the President of the
National Association of Telecoms Subscribers
Association of Nigeria (NATCOMS), Chief Deolu
Ogunbanjo, who had in 2013 asked operators to
compensate subscribers with N5, 000 each for
poor services, noted that the subscribers’ body
was yet to give up on the request to compensate
subscribers.
Ogunbanjo, who tongue-lashed both NCC and
MNOs for the hardship experienced by
subscribers over SIM registration and poor
service, said the compensation matter was still
very much in court “and I can tell you, this is a
course that we are not giving up. The operators
should have a way to compensate the
subscribers, because without them (users), there
wouldn’t have been any market for them to
explore.”
The Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Tony Ojobo,
said subscribers should not expect
compensation from the commission. He said the
money realised from the various sanctions on
service providers went to government coffers.
Ojobo explained that unlike previous sanctions,
which were specifically for one default or the
other, “this recent one is a fine for non-
compliance to order. It is a fine for a breach of
directive given to the operators.”
According to him, subscribers can ask MNOs to
compensate them. “If they fail, they can port to
another network. This was part of the reasons
why Mobile Number Portability was introduced.
If as a subscriber, you are not deriving pleasure
any longer from you operator, the option is
there for you to port. Move to a better network
that will address your case specifically.”