NCC in fresh war against service interference

By ADEDEJI ADEYEMI FAKOREDE

TELECOMS regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has commenced fresh war against individuals contributing to the delivery of high quality of services by the licensed telecoms operators in the country, it has been gathered.

According to a document obtained from the NCC, the latest source of interference is the illegal use of GSM Boosters by some individuals and businesses in the country without authorisation from licensed operators or the regulator.

GSM Boosters are devices that transmit and receive telecommunications signals and can, therefore, interfere with other radio frequency equipment.

The document titled: ‘Illegal Usage of GSM Boosters’ and signed by the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the regulator had been alerted on “the fact that GSM Boosters are illegally being used by individuals in Nigeria.”

He noted that willful interference with any wireless telegraphy is an offence under section 16 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 2004, adding, “The Commission will not condone any flagrant breach of this law.”

Dabatta explained that individual desirous of using the GSM Booster could only do that in conjunction with licensed network operators.

He, however, stated that the Commission has put appropriate measures in place to track down the illegal users of GSM boosters, capable of causing further interference on telecoms’ quality of service in the country.

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“Accordingly, mechanisms have been put in place to monitor and anyone caught using the GSM booster without obtaining approval of a duly-licensed network operator will face arrest and prosecution,” he said, call-ing on the members of the public with useful information regarding the illegal use of GSM Boosters to collaboration with the NCC in nipping the anti-industry practice in the bud.

Over the years, telecoms regulator has been waging war against the poor quality of service in order to ensure improved quality of service delivery to the over 150 million telecoms subscribers among whom over 90 million also access data services in the country.
To tackle this challenge, the NCC had some four years ago, developed Quality of Service (QoS) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which sets some thresholds in service delivery for telecoms operators.

It was gathered that following the coming into force of the KPIs, telecoms operators have had to be fined by the regulator on several occasions for their inability to meet the thresholds set for them on quality of service delivery.

In May 2012, NCC fined all the four Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators including MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat nearly N1.17 billion for failing to meet up with the minimum standard of quality of service (QoS) for the months of March and April 2012.

In the fine, Airtel, MTN, Glo, and Etisalat incurred N270 million, N360 million, N180 million and N360 million respectively.

The sanction, which shook the industry, was the highest fine in the history of Nigeria’s telecoms bordering on operators’ inability to meet the KPIs on quality of service.
However, cases of interference, arising from the illegal use of some equipment as well as illegal use of certain spectrum not legally licensed to some players in the industry have also added to the inability of the operators to achieve satisfactory level of service quality as dictated by the NCC.

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The Commission has constantly staged clampdown over illegal users of some frequency spectrum, whose usage does cause interference to the services being delivered by licensed operators.

Speaking in a telephone interview, President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Olusola Teniola, said the operators would also join the NCC in riding the industry of illegal users of GSM boosters that further dampen the quality of service in the industry.

Meanwhile, in addition to waging war against illegal users of GSM Boosters and other spectrum resources, causing interference to service delivery, Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, has urged the NCC to help in addressing teething industry challenges impinging on quality of service in the country.

Adebayo, who commended the NCC on its decision to tackle illegal users of GSM Booster, however, said, “Cases of multiple taxation and frivolous levies on telecoms company, slow approvals for infrastructure rollout, issue of Right of Ways (RoW), vandalism and non-classification of telecoms infrastructure as critical national security and economic infrastructure are still many challenges that continue to affect the quality of service delivery.
“We, as operators, are ready to work with the NCC to assist us in all these aforementioned areas with a view to making our over $32 billion telecom sector even more attractive to investments. We need more investment to build more infrastructure such as base stations to be able to provide superior services to our growing subscribers.”