Telecoms operators under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Operators of Nigeria are considering suing the Nigerian Communications Commission over the N1.17bn penalty slammed on them for poor quality services in the months of March and April by the regulatory body.
Specifically, MTN was directed to pay N360m; Airtel, N270m; Etisalat, N360m; and Globacom, N180m.
The President, ALTON, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, in an interview with one of our correspondents, was sure of the possibility of the association seeking redress in the law court if the NCC insisted on implementing the fine.
However, the telecoms regulatory body appeared unfazed by the operators’ plan as it said on Wednesday that each of them would be made to pay extra N2.5m daily as long as they defaulted in complying with the directives.
Adebayo said ALTON was currently engaging the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, the NCC, and other stakeholders to resolve the issue without jeopardising the operators’ ability to improve on their service.
He said if dialogue, legal process and other options failed, the operators would pay the fine, but not without a cost to all stakeholders, including the country’s over 95 million active subscribers.
He said, “I will warn that the NCC should mind the cost because if operators pay the fine, it would come at a cost to everybody. The issue of fine will not improve the quality of service, and if NCC keeps asking operators to pay fine; then, NCC will preside over a collapsed industry.
“Let me warn again there is no institution that is insulated against failure and the fastest way to make a business fail is by introducing unfavourable policies. We should be careful not to destroy the telecoms industry with penalty regimes or with policies because the industry is not established yet.”
The Director of Public Affairs, NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, disclosed the decision of the operators to impose the N2.5m daily extra penalty after the chief executive officers of the mobile operators failed to get a reprieve at a meeting with Executive Vice-Chairman, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said the CEOs of the four service providers had begged NCC for forgiveness or some reprieve at the meeting but could not present any convincing reason.
Ojobo said, “We had a meeting this (Wednesday) afternoon with the operators that were sanctioned. We did not want to attend the meeting but the management felt it was necessary to listen to them. The CEOs were all in attendance.
“They wanted to know if NCC could review its position on the sanction. They said the environmental challenges had contributed to the problem of quality of service. The issue of poor quality of service has been here for the past six years. We had not imposed this magnitude of sanction before because the quality of service indicators had not been put into gazette. This was, however, done in January.”
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