Starting January, Mobile telecommunication operators in Nigeria will face stricter measures as the country’s ICT regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is set to raise Key Performance Indicator (KPI) standards.
KPI sets minimum standards of service delivery quality for all telecoms operators.
According to the regulator, sanctions will be imposed on mobile operators that continue to deliver poor quality of service to its subscribers.
The regulatory agency expressed disappointment at the failure of mobile operators to meet up with the KPI agreed on with operator.
NCC Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah explained that the commission had agreed with telecoms operators to lower the initial KPI standard in 2012, following complaints by the operators that the standards were too high for them to meet, as a result of the harsh telecoms operating environment in the country.
The NCC had fined GSM operators (MTN, Airtel, Etisalat and Glo) a combined sum of N1.17 billion ($6.4m) last year for failing the KPI test carried out on their networks for the months of March and April that year. The commission gave the operators until May 25, 2012 to pay the fine or risk a penalty of N2.5 million ($16,000) daily as long as the contravention persists.
The four GSM operators however refused to pay the fine, until NCC addressed the challenges the operators were facing in rendering telecoms services to the people. The fine was eventually paid after an agreement was reached between the operators and the NCC to reduce the KPI standard, which they said was difficult to meet, due to the unfavourable telecoms environment at that period of time.
Now, Juwah said the commission will reverse to the initial KPI standards of the telecoms industry.
“In January, we will revert to the original KPI the commission is known for, and we will strictly adhere to it, because we have given the operators enough time to address the issue of poor service quality in the industry,” Juwah said.
He stated that the commission “has not sanctioned operators of late, because we reduced the KPI and all of them have been meeting the lowered standards, but it is time we raise the bar again in order to address the issue of service quality that is still lingering in the industry.”
The call centers opened by the NCC received about 50, 0000 complaints from dissatisfied customers on poor telecommunication services on daily basis, NCC Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, Mrs. Maryam Bayi said.
Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management at NCC, Mr. Okechukwu Itanyi buttressed this point stating that mobile operators were continually failing in the measurement of the quality of service rendered to customers.
Itanyi said the regulatory agency had been meeting with the operators on Key Performance Indicators and their rating after monthly monitoring of their performance.
“Today, there is a paradigm shift from mere service provision to ensuring that consumer satisfaction ranks highest in our priorities as a nation in the provision of ICT goods and services,” he said.
Relatively, the CEO of Back-Up Networks Limited, a company actively involved in the Nigeria’s quality of service testing and measurement engineering space, said Nigerian economy lose about N730 billion ($4.6b) to poor telecommunication services.
“For 100 million subscribers experiencing 10 minutes of poor QoS and quality of experience at N10 average failure rate, the net loss to subscribers is N1 billion ($6.3m) per day. Also, providers’ inability to service 100 million subscribers with potential 20 minutes calls due to consistent 10 minutes downtime equals N2 billion ($13m),” Ogbe told Nigerian newspaper, BusinessDaily recently.
“As a result, the Nigerian economy loses N2 billion per day as a result of net losses from the consumers and the operators income, bringing the total losses in a year to the economy within 365 days to an estimated N730 billion ($4.6b) as a result of poor QoS/QoE,” he added.
