The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) adopted yesterday August 29 new key performance indicators to measure the quality of telecom services provided by operators.

“These standards define the lower and upper bounds of acceptability of such technical issues as transmission rates, error rates, call completion rates, etc., and commercial consumer issues such as access to customer care centers, billing integrity, and other characteristics that can be measured and improved,” the commission said.

NCC has also imposed new rules for telecom operators. From now on, MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile will have to provide quarterly reports on their quality of service. The report for the previous quarter must be received by the NCC (Abuja office) by the 15th of the first month of each quarter. The report must be both in hard copy and in an editable electronic version, the telecom regulator said.

Each operator will also have to provide a national report (covering network services nationwide), a regional report (preferably using the six geopolitical zones), and an urban report for the cities of Lagos, Aba, Abuja, Kano, Benin City, Maiduguri, and Port Harcourt.

Nigeria wants to reduce its dependence on the oil sector and make the digital sector one of its main economic pillars. Reaching this goal requires quality access to telecom services for the population and NCC will make sure operators improve the quality of their services.

In its report "Modernizing Regulation and Quality of Service Regulation in Sub-Saharan Africa" published in 2020, the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) considers service quality to be crucial to the development of the telecom market.

Muriel Edjo