Senate attacks GSM operators over poor service delivery

…Says subscribers lose billions of Naira to dropped calls, poor voice quality
Mobile phone operators came under strong attack by the Senate over their alleged poor service delivery, which it contended has made Nigerians to lose their hard earned monies running into billions.

They lamented the rate of call drops and general poor services experienced from time to time by subscribers in the country owing to what it attributed to the inefficiency of GSM operators.

The Senate took this decision after adopting a resolution on a motion moved by Senator Andy Uba (APC Anambra South) to draw the attention of the legislators to the general complaints by Nigerians against the services of GSM operators in the country.

The motion by the Senator aimed at addressing the challenge was titled “The increasing rate of Dropped Calls and other unwholesome practices by Telecommunication Network Operators in Nigeria that have robbed Nigerians of their
hard earned billions of naira”.

Against this background, the Senate urged the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), to invoke the appropriate provisions of the law and other extant agreements, to protect consumers where necessary.

It also mandates the NCC to instruct the operators to refund to consumers cost incurred for disrupted calls caused by network issues and allow them have more control over their usage of data bundles as practiced by telecom operators in countries like Kenya (Safaricom) and South Africa, among others.

It insisted that the NCC should ensure that the Consumer Protection Council (CPC); the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and other regulatory agencies, henceforth, carry out effective supervision of the Telecoms service providers to ensure regulatory excellence; operational efficiency and sterling service delivery.

It also directed its Committee on Communications and Trade & Investment to further look into the issues raised in the motion, noting that despite the warning issued by NCC on the activities of telecom operators using dropped call mechanism to defraud Nigerians by deducting money from phone users illegally, no serious sanction or penalty has been issued against any operator to date.

Leading debate on his motion, Senator Uba noted that “Telecommunication services have gradually become an integral part of the Nigerian economy, as well as an important tool in the social-economic life of Nigerians, over the last decade.”

According to him, the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunication Subscribers have most recently been experiencing disturbances on the calls they make, while according to him, their woes have been compounded by the increase in the tariff they pay.

He drew attention to increasing rate of dropped calls; encountered incomprehensible speech and voice quality, which according to him, usually sounds like someone speaking from the bottom of a fish tank.

Senator Uba also drew attention to problems with the use of network bundles, most especially the short span of browsing notwithstanding the huge tariff paid by subscribers, expressing anger on the way and manner network automatically switch to a pricier airtime option when surfing or browsing the internet.

According to the motion, the Senate was worried that “All the GSM operators in Nigeria have recently been experiencing terrible congestions on their networks, thus, denying subscribers the benefits of getting value for their resources and hampering their ability to make or receive calls successfully.

“Operators also have an unfair advantage with dropped calls from per-minute users as callers end up paying for an entire minute if a call drops in between, especially within the first few seconds,” he added.

Senator Uba said though service providers have continued to expand their network coverage beyond what their existing infrastructure could carry, no adequate provision has been made to improve service delivery.

According to him, “A recent investigation shows that the four (4) major operators namely MTN, Airtel, Etisalat and Globacom could not provide the rate of drop calls on their networks; and they appear not to see the reason to compensate their customers for disconnected calls or address their frustrations.”

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, in response said the issue of poor service delivery by network operators in the country, has been on for some time urging the Committee on Communication to look into the problems with a view to finding a lasting solution to it.