AS efforts aimed at making mobile network operators to improve on their services, the Nigerian Communications Commission, (NCC), intends to make public the service quality strength of GSM operators in Nigeria.
The Commission currently have Key Performance Indications, which it uses to measure their performance, but in a meeting the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee investigating the telecoms industry, Executive Vice-Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said he would soon publish a ranking index for all telecoms operators indicating their service quality strength, with a view to stimulating competition among them.
When published, it could results to massive porting by subscribers of the telecos: MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom, Etisalat and ntel port thereby creating revenue lost to affected operators.
He disclosed that the commission would soon unleash tougher sanctions on specific operators that have shown little or no commitment to enhancing their service quality.
In one of its report on Mobile Number Portability, (MNP) the NCC revealed that the porting activities cut across networks from January to December 2015, and that a total of 219, 577 subscribers ported out of the networks of Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN, while 212, 401 subscribers ported into the networks of the four GSM operators, totaling 431, 978 recorded number of porting as at December 2015.
In June 2015, operators recorded the highest number of incoming porting subscribers across networks, totaling 51, 251, while they recorded the lowest number of incoming porting subscribes across networks in the month of January 2015, totaling 26, 824.
The statistics also showed the operators recorded the highest number of outgoing porting subscribers in the month of June 2015, totaling 28, 712, while the lowest number of outgoing porting subscribers in the month of January 2015, was put at 14, 330.
From the statistics, Etisalat recorded the highest number of incoming porting subscribers to its network, totaling 14,125 in June 2015, while MTN had the lowest number of incoming porting subscribers totaling 436 in December 2015.
For the outgoing porting subscribers, MTN recorded the highest number of subscribers that ported out of its network in the month June 2015, which was put at 19,214, while Etisalat had the lowest number of subscribers that ported out of its network in October 2015, which was put at only 1, 241
The NCC boss told the lawmakers that Commission is unhappy with (the massive job cuts in the telecommunications sector and that it was hamstrung by the Act setting up the commission to mediate in labour issues.
He noted that the commission desires to see the vibrancy in the industry translated to additional job creation in the economy, saying that the NCC does not currently have the mandate to intervene in labour issues.
Danbatta observed that there had been slight improvement in the quality of service by telecoms operators compared to now, the overall level of improvement still remained low and of great concern stressing that operators have continued to violate the mandatory one per cent drop call limit set for them by the commission.
By Isaiah Erhiawarien
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