Three mobile service providers in Nigeria have been fined a combined N647, 500,000 ($3.9 million) for poor service in January this year after the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) sanctioned Airtel Nigeria, Globacom Limited and MTN Nigeria for falling short of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the quality of service delivered in January.

“The Commission after careful collation of statistics from the Network Operating Centres (NOC) of all major networks operators for the month of January has concluded that the service provided by some of the operators during the period fell below the KPIs published by the Commission in the Quality of Service Regulations,” said Dr. Eugene Juwah , Executive Vice Chairman of NCC.

The companies have also been barred from further sale (or gifting) of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards with effect from March. All promotions on their networks have also been barred until they improve their networks.

A breakdown of the amount fined showed that MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria are to pay N185 million ($1.1 million) each while Globacom is to pay N277,500,000 ($1.4 million). Payment is expected on or before March 7, with defaulters to be charged a further N2,500,000 ($15,000) daily until the fine is paid.

The regulatory body has frequently issued stern warnings to the operators on the quality of their networks.

Subscribers have complained about the quality of network lately, with some saying operators have added more subscribers than their networks can conveniently serve. MTN leads the subscriber chart with over 55 million people hooked to its network. Globacom boasts over 25 million subscribers, while Airtel is the third largest with 21 million subscribers.