Subscribers’ association threatens MTN, Glo, Airtel, Etisalat with litigation over poor service

The association also accused operators of frustrating number portability.
The National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) on Friday
threatened to sue any telecoms operator that failed to improve in its
service delivery.
The President of the association, Deolu Ogunbanjo, told the News
Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that Nigerians were tired of poor services
by the operators.
According to him, telecommunication in Nigeria has continued to
experience poor signals, service outage, drop calls and deductions for
unsuccessful calls.
"Specifically, the Global System for Mobile telecommunication (GSM)
operators have failed woefully in terms of good service delivery.
"For almost 12 years now, the operators are yet to provide
satisfactory services to the Nigerian subscribers," he said.
Mr. Ogunbanjo said the association would resist any attempt by the
operators to further exploit subscribers.
"It is our right to demand quality service that is pocket-friendly;
since they have failed to do this, the association will not hesitate
to take legal actions. We want to start enjoying real value for our
money," he said.
He urged the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to strengthen
its regulatory framework to compel quality service delivery.
He also accused operators of frustrating the Mobile Number Portability
(MNP) exercise. He said the donor operators were making it difficult
for subscribers to port to other networks.
A donor operator is the mobile service provider that is losing a
customer that is porting to another network.
MNP is the ability for mobile telephone subscribers to switch to a new
mobile service provider, while retaining their existing mobile
numbers.
Mr. Ogunbanjo said that the donor service providers were delaying to
approve the porting approval requests sent to them, thereby making the
porting process take a longer time.
"The Mobile Number Portability is a very good concept; it creates
competition and it gives the subscriber a variety of choices.
"So, it is a very good thing that the Nigerian Communications
Commission has introduced it in Nigeria.
"Since April 22 when it was introduced, initially it was okay.
"But there are complaints now that some networks that subscribers want
to leave to another are making it difficult for their subscribers to
port," Mr. Ogunbanjo said.
He said that Nigeria was the 64th nation to embrace the MNP, hence, it
should have learnt from other nations to make the exercise viable.
The Director of Public Affairs, NCC, Tony Ojobo, however, said that
the commission had commenced investigation into the allegation.
Mr. Ojobo added that any operator found wanting would be sanctioned,
inaccordance with the regulations guiding the MNP in the country.
(NAN)