The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has made it compulsory for telecom licensees in Nigeria to let consumers know of major service outages of their networks through media channels.
They are expected to state the specific causes of the service interruption and the areas affected by the service interruption or outage, as well as the time that would be taken to restore service.
NCC insisted that consumers must also be informed, one week in advance, where operators have planned service outages.
This development is contained in the “Directive on Reportage of Major Network Outages by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs),” and is part of the Commission’s drive to ensure timely resolution of outages, enhance quality of experience for telecom consumers, and keep consumers informed.
According to a statement by the spokesperson of the Commission, Mrs. Nnenna Ukoha, Mobile Network Operators, Internet Service Providers and other operators that provide last mile services will also provide proportional compensation, including extension of validity, as may be applicable and in line with the provisions of the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations, where any major network outage continues for more than 24 hours.
The Commission identifies three types of major outages to include any network operational condition such as fibre cut due to construction or access issues or theft & vandalism and force majeure that impacts five per cent or more of the affected operator’s subscriber base or five or more Local Government Areas (LGAs); having an occasion of unplanned outage of, or complete isolation of network resources in 100 or more sites or five per cent of the total number of sites (whichever is less) or 1 cluster that lasts for 30 minutes or more and lastly, any form of outage that can degrade network quality in the top 10 states based on traffic volume as specified by the Commission from time to time.
The Commission directed that all Major Outages should be reported by operators through the Commission’s Major Outage Reporting Portal, which is accessible to the public through the Commission’s website, www.ncc.gov.ng.
The portal additionally discloses the identity of the culprit responsible for the disruption.
Commenting on the Directive and the Major Outage Reporting Portal, the Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Engr. Edoyemi Ogor said: “the Commission has trialled the reporting process and portal with operators for some months now before issuing the directive.
“By providing consumers and stakeholders in the telecommunications industry with timely and transparent information on network outages, we are entrenching a culture of accountability and transparency. This approach also ensures that culprits are held responsible for sabotage to telecommunications infrastructure.
“This also aligns with our broader commitment to the effective implementation of the Executive Order signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which designates telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII). It reinforces the need to safeguard these assets, given their centrality to national security, economic stability, and the everyday lives of Nigerians.”
