Issues with telecoms could ruin the holiday season

The decline in phone service quality over the past few weeks could be an indication of subpar service during the approaching Yuletide.

Checks by journalists reveal that during the past 25 days, the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have offered incredibly subpar voice and data services.

This comes after Dr. Aminu Maida, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), ordered service providers to raise the standard of service.

Maida made a hasty decision to guarantee that telephone services are at their peak during his meeting with industry stakeholders, which included the CEOs of the top telecom companies in Lagos.

He bemoaned the circumstance in which the NCC’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the service providers would, on paper, indicate nearly 100% success rates, “but Quality of Experience is zero.”

There have been complaints regarding fast data depletion, poor voice service connection rates, and malfunctioning short message service (SMS) despite charges.

Customers complained that instead of a N2,000 data bundle lasting thirty days, it now runs out in three to five days, or at most, seven days.

The owner of a grocery store, Nnamdi Ejiofor, told journalist that he has chosen to temporarily halt his data subscription because it is significantly depleting his income. “I only subscribe when I have really important and urgent things to do online—things that would earn me more money than I would pay for the membership.”

In response, Deolu Ogunbanjo, President of the National Association of Telecom Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMs), voiced concern that this development might carry over into the New Year’s Day and the holiday season.

Making calls has become difficult lately, according to Ogunbanjo, who spoke with journalist, “as you can be trying for hours and not get through.” If you choose to use WhatsApp, SMS will not be delivered on time, and your data will quickly run out. It implies that using your phone for any significant task has become difficult. The operators ought to step up their efforts.

The head of NATCOMs, who urged the newly appointed NCC director to investigate, cautioned against placing all the blame on the operators.

He said that because operators require more funding for improvements and growth, “I will therefore call on the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to reimburse telecom companies for the N200 billion they have to pay them for the use of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).” Why has it become so difficult for the banks to make up the difference until it has accrued to that point when the money(s) are taken out immediately?

According to him, the operators require the funds in order to modernise, grow, and address network congestion.