‘NCC Not Complacent about Challenges of Service Quality’
The lingering situation about poor service quality in the telecoms sector, has continued to pose serious concern to the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). This was revealed by the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, while presenting a paper at the second yearly stakeholders’ conference of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), held at the University of Lagos, recently.
Juwah who was represented by the Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, admitted that the service quality currently being experienced was not acceptable, but explained that the commission had gone through the rigours of several meetings with operators in order to address the issue. He said it was proper to let the public know that the regulator is not complacent about the situation.
The NCC boss listed the challenges to include inadequate power supply, multiple taxation and regulations, vandalisation of telecoms infrastructure, right of way challenges, and infrastructure deficit among others. “Only the elimination of some or all of these will provide the critical success factors in finally eradicating service quality challenges,” Juwah said. He said during the public hearing held by the National Assembly in 2008, power was considered to have contributed more than 40 per cent to poor service quality issues.
Telecommunications depend on power to run 24/7. Just as individuals in Nigeria generate their power, so has telecommunications services generated much of the power it utilises. The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, (ATCON), has put the estimated cost of running two generators in each of the over 25,000 base stations sites in Nigeria today at about N5 billion monthly. ATCON says while Nigeria’s service provider spends 80 per cent of its operating expenses (OPEX) on power generation, in Malawi, it is just about 5 per cent. This captures the explanation as the service providers would have been in a position to channel more resources to tackling the issues of service quality, Juwah said.
On multiple taxation and regulation, Juwah said: “We have a very nagging issue of regulations and taxes awaiting the telecom operators at different levels of government. Some of these regulations are made outside of the purview of the telecom regulator. There are states and local governments where telecom infrastructure is seen as fertile ground for improving internally generated revenue as these infrastructure must be available to make services possible. In some areas, state governments, local governments, or even some federal government agencies have had to force a close down of base stations with the implication of disconnecting many localities from the network thereby adding to the challenge.”
He said the issue of Right of Way is also a challenge, where governments at various levels, individuals and communities, prevent the service providers from installation of equipment that would have addressed the challenge of service quality.
He gave an instance where the Federal Capital Territory Administration stopped issuance of permits to telecom service providers to build base stations on account of fear of defacing the city.
Vandalization of equipment has become common where criminals vandalise expensive transmission lines laid with fibre optics or where road construc- tions or similar situation results in cutting off huge transmission cables with multiple negative effects on service quality.
He explained that many commentators were quick to make comparisons with developed parts of the world on service quality, without reflecting on the level of infrastructure deficit in the Nigerian telecom sector. “While monopolies in the developed parts of the world made enormous investments in infrastructure to sustain their markets, Nigeria was not as lucky. Dearth of fixed landline services brought about enormous pressure on mobile services which affected quality given the rate subscription.”