Telcos lobby to overturn NCC’s N1.17bn fine on poor services

Ben Uzor Jr

Top executives of the ‘big four’ telecommunications companies are engaging in intense lobbying with a view to overturning the N1.17 billion fine imposed on them by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over poor quality of service rendered to subscribers in the country, Business Day has learnt. Sources have confirmed that the telecoms operators held a strategic meeting with NCC helmsman on Friday at the commission’s corporate headquarters in Abuja, barely one week to the expiration of the deadline imposed by NCC for payment of fines for falling below regulatory quality benchmarks in service delivery to phone users in Nigeria.

The rationale behind the meeting, according to sources was to appeal to the NCC to reverse its fines against them and also explain the implications of going ahead with the implementation of the fines against them. Reacting to this, Tony Ojobo, director, public affairs of NCC told Business Day at the weekend that the commission “will not back down for any reason. The penalties are as a result of the contravention of the provisions of the Quality of Service regulations by the commission. Operators failed to meet with the minimum standard of quality of service including the key performance indicators (KPIs). Erring operators must pay the fine”.  

Ojobo however did not confirm if any meeting took place between the commission and telecoms operators last week. Sources say NCC boss is not likely to give in to the pressures from the telecom operators’ executives as the senate has ordered the commission to make certain that operators pay the fines. According to the source, telecoms operators have also appealed to the commission to extend the timeline for payment of the fine. This was if the operators’ first appeal of overturning the fines fails. On May 10, the telecoms regulator had wielded the big stick which would see South African owned MTN Nigeria and Etisalat Nigeria, owned by Etisalat Group of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), pay N360 million in fines respectively.  

On the other hand, Airtel Nigeria, the local subsidiary of Bharti Airtel of India, will pay N270 million whilst Globacom, Nigeria’s Second National Operator (SNO), will pay N180 million. Beyond this, the mobile network operators (MNOs) were also expected to pay their respective fines not later than May 25 this year. If operators fail to comply, they risk a fresh round of disciplinary fines pegged at N2.5million per day for failure to meet payment deadline. Subsequent to the sanctions, the Senate has ordered the NCC to ensure that operators pay the fines following overtures underway by the affected companies for a review of the sanctions.

The quartet of MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Etisalat and Airtel, have invested more than N1 trillion in building and enhancing networks in the country over the last ten years. The operators made the disclosure in an advertorial jointly published in various newspapers from Wednesday last week, further adding that a further N400 billion will be deployed this year by them to enhance infrastructure across their networks. Bound in a rare coalition by a common threat last week reassured consumers of improved service quality within the next twelve months, while they called for the understanding of all on the current harsh environment in which they operate.

According to them, the “fines will not bring about the desired service quality improvements or offer a lasting solution but will merely deplete essential resources that would otherwise be deployed for network roll out.” The quarter said in a joint statement called on the government and telecoms administration in Nigeria to work in harmony towards continued promotion of investment in the telecoms sector. The affected telcos appealed to the Nigerian consumers over the poor quality of service, and pledged to improve their services drastically with the next 12 months by further investing heavily to support their network infrastructure. 

“We are all equally frustrated and concerned about the failures to meet customer expectations and needs with respect to the quality of service. Nigeria deserves and needs first class telecoms networks. We thus apologize unreservedly to you, our customers, for those occasions when you have been disappointed or inconvenienced by a lapse or failure to deliver the requisite level of quality of service. We however believe that it is necessary to explain the major challenges we face as operators and ask for your understanding and support”, they said.

Deolu Ogunbanjo, president of the National Telecom Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS), also said that the fine, when collected, must go to the subscribers, who are the ones that suffer poor quality of service always.  “It’s a good thing that NCC has finally decided to sit up, and get proactive, by doing the work of a regulator. The fine should be paid to the subscribers, because it is them that network operators deliver poor service to.” Responding, Ojobo, said there was no case as to who the fine should be paid to. “It is a law, and the fine has to be paid to the commission. The commission will take a decision on what to do with the money. Fines are supposed to be punitive; it’s a penalty that must be paid.

“It’s not about the money when it is eventually collected; it’s about the bad signal it sends to the international organisations. This fine is something that will make people uncomfortable. Because when you are fined, it does something to your organisation,” he said. When asked about the poor power supply, which is one of the causes of poor QoS, Ojobo said the commission was not power holding, and so has no power over what goes on in their organisations. “If the telcos are having issues with power, they should deal with it. The power issue has been there for over 11 years, and they must be creative in dealing with it. It has not stopped some of them from declaring profit over the years, thus they must be able to convert some of the success stories into ideas to steady power supply for their industries,” he said.