NCC to Compel Operators to Provide Better QoS

He also spoke of efforts to address the issue of multiple taxation and tackle vandalism in the industry.

Prof Danbatta who stated this shortly after a meeting with States Desk Officers on Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) at the Commission’s head office in Abuja also said the commission would henceforth address the dwindling quality of service in the telecommunications sector headlong, using the international acceptable standards and benchmarks as set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in regulating service delivery across the sector.

According to him, the commission was being inundated with complaints from service providers on multiple taxation from the federal, states and local government councils in the country.

This, he noted, would not allow speedy growth and development of telecommunication infrastructures as the number of subscribers increase on daily basis across the nation.

He maintained that under his leadership, the NCC would ensure considerable improvement in quality of service and other parameters, stressing that broadband penetration though low in sub-Saharan Africa would be improved upon with time.

Professor Danbatta said: “Now the fact that we are leading (broadband penetration) and if you translate the penetration rate that is normally provided in percentage into numbers then you will find over 130 million Nigerians with access to GSM services and of course these very high number of subscribers come with its challenges in terms of the degradation of quality of services.

“The more subscribers you have the more the telecomm services are stretched. They are not stretched above the limit but there is need for urgent measures to be put in place to avoid a situation where we are in like today. Something needs to be done urgently and these measures are measures that the commission can consciously put in place to address the quality of service through making sure that telecoms infrastructure is not vandalized.