Service quality worsens despite N347bn network upgrade

Ben Uzor Jr

Despite over $2.24 billion (N347 billion) investment ploughed into network expansion projects by telecommunications operators in the preceding year, Nigerians are yet to feel the impact in terms of improvements in network quality. The most obvious quality issues are drop calls and incoherent voice transmission which are still very prevalent in the industry.The current situation, according to analysts, has huge negative cost implication on individuals and businesses that depend on telecoms services.

“Throughout the holidays, service quality on all networks was very poor. I could not make a call without experiencing a drop call. If however I got connected, I could barely hear the person I was communicating with,” said Rasheed Shonubi, a subscriber to one of the big networks. Shonubi’s reflects the frustrations of numerous businesses, particularly those that deal on heavy data throughout 2012 and in the festive period. “That despite all that, subscribers are constantly inundated with adverts of how much operators’ are spending on network upgrades and expansion,“ Shonubi added.

Reports shows that MTN invested $1.4 billion on network upgrades in 2012 with Etisalat investing $194 million in network expansion through the building of about 1,000 base stations by the end December 2012 in addition to the 3,000 Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) it already has. On the other hand, Airtel Nigeria invested $600 million on its network since taking over the GSM license originally held by Zain. Globacom also signed a $6 million contract with Ceragon in March 2012. In the CDMA segment of the industry, Visafone signed a $20 million agreement with Huawei in 2012 to expand its network across 26 states and build up its broadband infrastructure in Lagos.

There are some industry watchers who say that perhaps mobile network operators are not investing sufficiently in network capacity, in view of the ever-growing demand for communications services.The country’s over 100 million phone subscribers entered into the New Year with serious complaints about the deteriorating service quality by mobile networks. Jude Kalu, a subscriber to one of the networks based in Lagos told Benuzorreports, : “I have been unable to maintain a call for three minutes without it dropping. I have three lines because I need to be in touch with my businesses in the East. The telecoms regulator needs to do more, bearing in mind the telecoms sector is critical to the growth of the economy.”

On the other hand, Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licenced Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) confirmed that appreciable sums of money has gone into network expansion in 2012, adding that the problem the industry faces is in two dimensions, man-made and natural causes. “The spate of bomb attacks on installation infrastructure and the recent floods which destroyed equipments comprehensively slowed down expansion projects which contributed to poor quality of service,” he postulated. Furthermore, he said that most operators were not prepared for these developments, as they never anticipated them when drawing up the budget for network upgrades.

“We also have issue of governments and their agencies shutting down base stations for one levy or the other. All these have contributed to poor quality of service,” he pointed out. The Nigerian Communications Commission had said it would impose fresh sanctions on telecoms operators in December, if poor quality of service persists. In July, MTN, Airtel, Etisalat and Globacom fell under the hammer of the regulator who slammed a collective N1.17 billion fine for poor services. Giving vivid insight into some of the factors that impede improved service delivery, Osondu Nwokoro, director, regulatory affairs, Airtel Nigeria, said no fewer than 53 telecoms hubs belonging to the company were directly affected during the bomb attacks in the northern east part of Nigeria.“But 193 sites were impacted in all, as huge outages were sustained. The way the network architecture is designed, we have some telecoms masts that are hubs and control other base stations. So, if a hub is destroyed, then other masts that depend on the hub will be affected,” he said. 

However, the Indian-owned mobile network operator has managed to resuscitate 112 out of the 193 telecoms sites. The rising spate of bomb attacks, according to Nwokoro has stalled network restoration and rollout, as field operations personnel refuse to work in areas prone to violence. The Airtel director bemoaned the fact that the loss of capacity occasioned by these threats in most cases, affected quality of service delivery and customer experience, leading to a drop in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Silas Daniel, a businessman, described the services of some of the service providers during the yuletide season as ‘’terrible’’. Daniel said some of the operators had inundated the subscribers with unsolicited text messages during the yuletide period at different rates. “They will bombard you with series of text messages and a lot of promos that sometimes get you confused.

They will tell you there is a free call to this call at “so-so’’ time and you might bump into the wrong hours. You will think that you are making a free call but before you know it, your credit will go. NCC should be able to put up strict and stringent measures to be able to punish offenders because they are taking Nigerians for a ride; these things are not done elsewhere, even in South Africa and other parts of the world. These are not done, they are not acceptable.’’ Daniel said that the destruction of some of the GSM masts in some part of the country should not be used as an excuse for poor services. He urged the operators to partner with local communities and private security outfits to ensure security of their installations nationwide.

Rosemary Onyemenan, a youth corps member, called for a downward review of tariff and appealed to the industry regulator to prevail on the operators to expand their network to rural areas.  Michael Vershima, a civil servant, complained about the frequent “error in call connection’’ from his service provider, adding that such interruptions could have safety and security implications. He also appealed to operators to stop charging for voice notifications made to subscribers during active calls.