•To meet with telcos on Friday
Ben Uzor Jr
Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has pledged to intensify efforts to improve the quality of service by ensuring that telecommunications operators are more responsive to the need of the consumers. Speaking at the Institute of Directors’ (IoD) members evening held at the weekend in Lagos, Juwah disclosed that the commission would meet with telecom operators on Friday, to draw up a feasible roadmap to improving service quality.
He stated that the commission had set up a taskforce to address the issues of quality of service in the telecoms sector, adding that the commission will work assiduously with operators to achieve network optimisation and speed up the rate of deployment of new base stations, switches and transmission infrastructure. “This is an important area I am particularly concerned about. I will meet with telecom operators on Friday and the issues of poor quality of service will form an integral part of my discussions with them”, the NCC boss revealed.
Giving an insight into some of the factors responsible for poor quality of service from a technological perspective, Juwah pointed out that most telecom operators may have failed to design some of their coverage areas properly, resulting in ‘blackpools’. Blackpools refers to grey areas in between base stations. This is even as they jostle to expand their network quickly in the country. “There may also be a lack of capacity in that the base stations that actually connect your calls are not properly sized and in many cases they get easily overloaded”, he added.
Since the inception of the mobile telephony in 2001, telecommunication subscribers have persistently complained about the quality of service rendered by telecom operators, which always results in billing issues, drop calls, and difficulty in recharging account, among others. But most of the frustrations, according to the telecoms operators, are as a result of cable and infrastructure cuts, particularly in Lagos and most other urban towns where road construction and maintenance are being carried out.
Alluding to the size of the population as one of the major challenges to building a quality network, Juwah pointed out that some of the actions of local and state governments and other regulatory agencies like the National Environmental Standards Regulatory Agency (NESREA) contribute significantly to poor quality of service. “If the NESREA actually locks up a base station because they feel people are complaining about radiation, then there will be poor quality of service there. One of the biggest problems we have with internet in Nigeria is that of infrastructure in terms of fibre penetration in our cities and residences. This problem normally arises in difficulty in gaining right-of-way because you cannot come and lay fibre on the road, you must have permission from the state or local government.
“NCC is planning to go into discussion over partnership with local governments, state governments, vendors, and operators in order to solve the right-of-way problem where it will be a win-win situation for everybody. Our plans will shortly be unfolded and I hope that in the near future we will start seeing the impact of this programme”, he explained.
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