The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has warned three major mobile operators - MTN, Globacom and Airtel - to improve the quality of their services, or face sanction.
The Commission also told the mobile operators that they would be prevented from selling SIM cards by the end of November if they fail to meet key performance indicators (KPIs) set by the Commission to improve service quality.
The 30-day deadline will be effective from 1 November.
The regulator said the move followed an observation of dismal service-quality performance from the three operators. This was the result of an independent monitoring exercise carried out by the Commission across the country.
The NCC said the exercise showed that all three operators failed to meet four KPIs that are crucial for service quality improvements, as set by the Commission.
Any new SIM card sold, or additional subscriber added to the network in contravention of the direction, will attract a 1 million-naira penalty per subscriber added.
A contravention of the direction, when in effect, will attract a penalty of 5 million naira, and an additional 500 000 naira for each day the contravention persists.
In addition, failure by the operators to meet the quality of service targets from 30 November would attract a fine of 500 000 naira for each month of poor service.
In a letter to the operators, the Commission said: “It is not in doubt that the customer experience on your network has been far from satisfactory, especially as the Commission has been inundated with complaints from various subscribers on this matter,” noting that “the trend of unacceptable quality of service has persisted for too long”.
The KPIs measured by the Commission included Call Set Up Success Rate, Call Completion Rate, Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel and Handover Success Rate.
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