The National Communications Authority (NCA) has sanctioned all four mobile network operators (MNOs) in the country for providing poor services to consumers.
The MNOs have been fined an amount of GH¢34,065.000 with a 30-day deadline to pay.
The four network operators sanctioned for their non-compliance with various Quality of Service (QoS) requirements are MTN, AirtelTigo, Vodafone, and Glo.
A statement issued by the NCA yesterday said AirtelTigo is to pay GH¢11,635,000, Glo, GH¢4,460,000, MTN GH¢9,080,000 and Vodafone GH¢8,890,000.
It said Section 83 (2) of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775) would be applied if operators fail to pay the amount within the stipulated time.
The Section provides that “a person who fails to pay a fee, penalty or other levy payable to the Authority within the stipulated time is liable to pay the Authority a fine of a one and half per cent of the amount due for each month or part of a month after the stipulated time that the fee, penalty or other levy remained unpaid”.
The NCA said it regularly undertakes QoS monitoring to determine MNOs’ compliance with their licence conditions and to ensure that consumers receive the quality service they have paid for.
The statement stated that in the first quarter of 2018, the authority undertook QoS monitoring of all MNOs in the Greater Accra, Eastern, Western, Northern regions and two districts in the Ashanti Region in the phase one of a nationwide monitoring exercise.
It explained that the monitoring enabled the authority to determine the MNOs which were unable to meet their Licence Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in some district capitals with regards to QoS; Obligations for Coverage, Data, Voice and Speech Quality.
It said, the NCA subsequently held reconciliation meetings with all four mobile network operators and they were given three months ending August 21, 2018 to cure the infractions detected.
At the end of the deadline, the authority embarked on a follow up monitoring to ascertain if the QoS infractions recorded had been resolved.
The follow up revealed that though the KPIs in some district capitals had improved, the MNOs were not able to meet the KPI thresholds as per their licences, hence their sanctions.
It should be noted that although voice and data quality and coverage obligations were tested, these sanctions are focused on only voice services.
According to the statement, the NCA is currently undertaking a second monitoring to re-evaluate the performance after the initial QoS monitoring for the remaining five regions, that is, Brong Ahafo, Volta, Upper East, Upper West, Central regions and the remaining district capitals that were not tested in Q1 in the Ashanti Region.
It stated that the authority would continue to undertake its regulatory duties with the consumer at heart adding that these punitive measures were intended to encourage the MNOs to adhere to the quality of service parameters as set out in their licence conditions.
BY TIMES REPORTER
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