[ 2012-05-14 ]

MTN, Airtel and Glo fined heavily in Nigeria

MTN, Airtel, Glo fined millions of dollars for poor quality of service in Nigeri
MTN, Glo Mobile, Airtel and Etisalat have been
fined a total of over US$7.4million in Nigeria for
poor quality of service in the months of April and
May, 2012.

Reports from Nigeria said the Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC) slapped the fines
on the four operators on Thursday, May 11, 2012
for failing to meet minimum standard of quality of
service key performance indicators (KPIs) set for
them.

MTN and Etisalat were slapped with the heaviest
fines of almost US$2.3million each; Airtel got a
little over US$1.7million fine, and Glo got the
least fine of over US$1.14million just for two
months of quality of service breaches.

The four players also ran the risk of paying
additional US$15,902 daily if they did not pay
their respective fines before Monday, May 21,
2012.

In Ghana, five operational telcos (minus Glo then)
were fined a total of GHC1.2 million (US$638,767)
for poor quality of service over a period of three
months last year, and it generated hue and cry
among telcos who felt the fines were too heavy.

But MTN and Airtel, which were among those fined
in Ghana last year, are each paying fines in
Nigeria up to four times (for just two months)
what all five players put together paid in Ghana
for three months of failing to meet QoS KPIs.

Glo’s fine in Nigeria, which was the lowest, is
also more than twice what all five players paid in
Ghana last year.

MTN Nigeria was reported to have blamed the
quality of service breaches partly on poor power
supply, vandalisation of its facilities (several
fibre cuts and theft) due to poor security, and
multiple regulatory taxations, and appealed to the
Regulator to also help in dealing with some of
those issues.

The challenges cited by MTN Nigeria, particularly
fibre cuts and theft, were no different from what
telcos in Ghana also cited as part of the factors
that affected quality of service.

Ghana’s industry regulator and government are on
record as saying they were working to deal with
some of those challenges, particularly the
numerous arbitrary charges by MMDAs on
installation of equipment to improve quality of
service, and issues of right of way to install
infrastructure, particularly fibre.

Source - MyjoyOnline

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