One of the major success stories that Nigerians will continue to tell the world with relish is the achievement which the country recorded with the introduction of Global System of Mobile communications. The telecom revolution started from less than half a million connected lines in year 2000 and quickly grew to over 150 million connected lines as at today, thus putting Nigeria up there as a reference point for telecom development in sub-Saharan Africa.
Indeed, Nigeria earned respect across the globe and has from then been known and described as one of the countries with the fastest growing telecom industry in the world.
From zero level when the GSM licences were auctioned in January 2001, each of the licensed companies – MTN, Econet wireless (now Airtel), Globacom and M-tel–moved quickly to start their operations. Etisalat joined them some years later.
The telecom revolution has had positive impact on the people’s lives and the country’s economy. For example, it created millions of jobs in the economy, facilitated millions of businesses and also made communications easier and cheaper among the people. It has also contributed more to the growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Products.
But to every sweet story, there is always an underbelly of sourness, which if not addressed in time, is capable of spoiling the taste in the mouth. So it is with the good name which the country has garnered, since the telecom revolution started in the country in 2001.
How else can we describe the poor performance of the telecom networks in the country these days? The issue was the subject of discussion among participants at the recent 81st Telecom Consumers Parliament Organisation, packaged by the Nigerian Communications Commission in Lagos. At the meeting, participants condemned in strong terms, the dismal performance of the telecom networks in recent time. Among other remedies, the participants asked telecom consumers to demand for and get compensation from the telecom network operators over infractions on their rights.
It is hard to believe that some 16 years after the telecom operators were licensed, and had rolled out services, consumers have been subjected to unending, often inexplicable poor services. In particular, the consumers have witnessed such harrowing moments as dropped calls, failed calls, network interruption, network congestion, loss of signals during calls, overcharging for calls and charges for unsubscribed services.
Other rip-off points are failed attempts to load recharge payment, inability to change their tariff plan, inability to activate the offered service, inability to send or receive SMS, unsolicited messages without an option to opt out, and call misdirection to an unintended number, among others. The poor services offered the customers are awfully too many.
Many confused telecom consumers have at different times, written letters to the editors of national dailies to seek redress from the telecom outfits without getting any positive answers from the erring operators. Even when such feedbacks are published by the editors, the pomposity of the network operators is so much that they would always turn deaf ears to such complaints.
Many Nigerians were angry that the recession dealt a great blow to our economy. For me, I was happy that it enabled us to look back, see where things went wrong and take measures to pull the economy out of recession and put it on the path of growth again. On their part, during the recession, telecom consumers became more discerning about the services offered by the telecoms networks and were dismayed by their poor services and how they had been cheating their consumers for services not subscribed to. It was also discovered that even when customers complained to the telecoms companies about their services, out of arrogance, they hardly made any apologies or tried in any form to improve on the quality of such service.
They should know that such poor quality services and lack of courtesy for their consumers cannot be business as usual for too long
Telecom service subscribers are the customers of the network operators. It is the customers’ right to demand for reasonably high quality of service, seamless connectivity, little or no disruption in service, affordable and value for their money and proactive information on service. Consequently, where a telecoms company performs poorly, it must give its consumers adequate compensation for the loss they suffered as a result of its poor service. This is the practice across the world, but not in Nigeria.
We do know that in the Nigerian business environment, certain network problems cannot be ruled out. Among such problems are glitches arising from the vagaries in power supply, vandalism of equipment, network software malfunctions and fraudulent hacking and human errors. But, when such problems occur, telecom operators owe it a duty to promptly communicate to their consumers about the occurrence and what they are doing to restore high quality service.
To worsen matters, the networks have also taken it upon themselves to give their customers unsolicited messages, unnecessarily charge them for services not rendered, and to continue to give them poor quality service. If anything, 16 years after commencement of operation, the telcos should have improved on the quality of their services. They should know that such poor quality services and lack of courtesy for their consumers cannot be business as usual for too long.
It is noteworthy that some of the network operators are foreign investors who invested in this economy and could not have cared much about how Nigerians cherish high quality service and detest cheating and lack of respect for customers’ feelings. But, having operated in this country for about 16 years, they ought to have been adapted to the Nigerian high value for service.
In the prevailing circumstances, NCC is the last hope of the telecom services consumers. Therefore, the NCC must put in place stringent rules and guidelines for the various telecoms operators in the country and also set out to consumers, the NCC telephone lines to call for complaints, whenever they feel aggrieved, especially when they are cheated by the telecoms network operators. Such complaints must also be well investigated and, if found to be true, the telecoms network operator should be made to apologise to the consumer and other necessary compensation made to the consumer. That is the best way to go to prevent the sweet telecom revolution from being turned into a failed and sour experience in Africa’s largest economy.
