By Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has stated that it directed to network service providers to grant subscribers 14 days period of grace after the 30 days period had elapsed, saying it would soon come out with a final statement.
The Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Dambata, stated this in Jos, the Plateau State capital weekend during the NCC’s sixth Consumer Conversation Forum.
The Forum is a programme through which the NCC educates and enlightens the consumers on their rights and how to go about solving issues with their network service providers and also to let consumers know when and how to call on the NCC to intervene on their behalf.
The Executive Vice-Chairman who spoke through the Zonal Coordinator for north central, Ms Hellen Obi, stated that network service providers had not ignored the commission’s directive to extend the data usage by subscribers beyond the 30 days with a 14 days grace period, as the commission is working on it and will soon come out with a final statement at the appropriate time.
According to him, “It has not been ignored. The commission is working on it and at the appropriate time, it will make a final statement.
“Yes I would like to say that to make sure that the networks are up and running, it has to be a joint effort and that is where the consumers come in; because you know we have infrastructures for these networks put in various localities where we have our consumers and sometimes we have our base stations shot down illegally or vandalised.
“As a result, the service provider may not have access to address whatever challenge is happening at that base station or the mast. So we are requesting the consumers to know that they should try and secure their environment; in order to reduce the issue of poor quality of service to the minimum.’’
On the issue of drop calls being experienced by consumers, NCC said that it had to do with poor network on the part of the service providers due to the network’s capacity and power challenges.
“Drop calls are all parts of poor quality service. It also has to do with poor network capacity of the network and maybe the challenges that are experienced has to do with power issue,’’ he added.
“On several occasions, we recieved complaints that the generators installed at the base stations are stolen by unscrupulous elements in the communities and that stalls all the activities being handled by that particular station.
“The issue of drop calls has to do with quality of service issue and why the Commission is always coming up every now and then with measures to make sure that this networks are up and running and that the operators provide services in line with the laid down rules.â€
The Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) Plateau State chapter, Mr. Ayuba Yagabou, accused all the major telecom service providers of not rendering any form of corporate social responsibility to the teachers’ union that has 24,000 members.
