Glo, Etisalat to pay NCC fines this week

After being fined N1.17 billion ($7.3-million)  by Nigeria’s Communications Commission (NCC) more than a month ago, mobile operators MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat last week agreed that they would pay the fines imposed on them. While no time-frame was given, it has emerged that the operators would pay the fines this week.

A number of Nigeria mobile operators have reacted with shock to penalties imposed by the NCC (image: file)

The operators were fined for rendering poor quality of service (QoS) to subscribers around the country; the NCC said when the penalties were imposed.

According to Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs Officer of the NCC, the resolution would bring to a close the lingering dispute over the measurements used in assessing the operators quality of service, as the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were discussed late on Friday.

“He said the engineers from both NCC and the four mobile operators are looking at the KPIs and would come up with milestones for measuring the future quality of service over the next few months in other to consolidate the investments made by the operators,” Nigeria’s Leadership wrote.

The NCC added daily penalties after it became clear that the operators refused to pay the initial fine, but Ojobo added that paying the initial fine should be good enough. “If they pay the major fines, I don’t see the default becoming a major issue,” he said.

“If they don’t pay for ten days it is N25m, 20 days it is N50 million and 30 days it is N75 million for each of the operators. Failure to pay any of the fines would force the regulator to resort to Directives and Actions in the National Communication Act (NCA) 2003 on the operators,” said spokesman of the Commission, Reuben Mouka at the time.

Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor