Residents of Ikorodu, Okota task telecos on improved services

Residents of Ikorodu and Okota, suburbs of Lagos have cried out to telecom operators to improve the quality of services in the areas.

According to residents, both voice and data services needed urgent upgrades for subscribers to get value for money spent.

Speaking with The Guardian, a subscriber Onyeka Nwogu, said for the past two weeks, MTN service has been appalling, as “we could neither make calls or browse efficiently. The router we bought for Internet service is not giving full coverage. I am seriously considering switching to another service provider.”

Another subscriber, Racheal Okafor, a subscriber to both Airtel and MTN services, said she used the two networks for business, “but the Internet service on both networks remains abysmal. I am a businesswoman that makes use of the Internet a lot, but I must confess, services from the telecom operators are nothing to write home about. We only hope that things will change faster.”

Ifeanyi Agodo, who uses all the networks, claimed that none of the service providers appear stable, “reason I employ the services of the four telecom operators.

“I think the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) should beam search light on these services. Subscribers are not getting quality for the money they are paying. The Federal Government should come to customers’ rescue.”

For Ikorodu-based Catherine Akanji, her complaint is that “immediately I load credit, especially on the Airtel network, they take my data. By the time I check the credit balance, it has been depleted. I find this difficult to comprehend.”

Akanji said he had to send a mail to the Airtel Customer Care to complain, after several hours, this was what I got, “Thank you for contacting Airtel customer care. We empathize with you on this experience. Please provide the affected Airtel mobile number for better assistance. Apologies for the delayed response and all inconveniences regretted. Thank you for your continuous patronage on the Airtel network.”

Another customer, Damilola Dada, said Globacom data service had been terrible lately with rising depletion of data. “We don’t get the data value for our money, but voice services are sometimes okay. One time a call was on, but the receiver couldn’t hear me. The person had called back because the network was fluctuating, and it has happened many times like that.”

Dada, who also complained of the inability to access bonus offers on the networks, added that Glo data in terms of volume, is larger but it is only good at night. “I live in Ikorodu, but work at Ketu. The only time I have a good network in Ikorodu is at night. The speed in the Ketu area is okay during the day though. I think this network issue also has to do with location,” he added.

Speaking with The Guardian, a telecoms expert, Kehinde Aluko, said it is unfortunate that Nigerians have continued to experience poor service from the telcos despite spending between N2 trillion and N3 trillion yearly on airtime.

Aluko also said the industrial glitches have remained despite repeated sanctions by NCC to bring sanity to the sector, which is indicative of how deep the rot is.

He urged the telecoms regulator to conduct a stress test on the service providers to know why actually the problem has remained, despite claims of several huge investments on the path of the operators.