MTN,ETISALAT AND OTHERS,FINED MORE THAN $2M BY NCC

UAE-based telco Emirates Telecommunications Corp has been fined more than $2m for failing to meet minimum service standards in Nigeria. The Nigerian Communications Commission said it has fined the country’s mobile-phone operators a cumulative 1.17bn naira (One Billion, One Hundred and Seventy Million Naira, $7.4m) due to their

inability to meet the quality of service mandates of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Three other telecommunications operators fined by NCC are MTN Nigeria, Airtel and Globacom  as penalty for poor services  rendered to their different subscribers in the months of  March and April 2012.

Details of the penalties already communicated to the different operators indicate that MTN Nigeria Communications and Etisalat, will pay the sum of N360,000,000 ( Three Hundred and Sixty Million ) respectively while Airtel is to pay the sum of N270,000,000 (Two Hundred and Seventy Million Naira). Globacom, on the other hand attracted a penalty in the sum of N180,000,000 (One Hundred and Eighty Million Naira).

All the operators are expected to pay the penalties on or before May 21, 2012 or be liable to payment of additional N2,500,000 ( Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira) per day for as long as the contravention persists.

The penalties are as a result of the contravention of the provisions of the Quality of Service Regulations by the NCC as the operators failed to meet with the minimum standard of quality of service including the key performance indicators, KPIs.

The Commission has in line with the provisions of the regulation, monitored the performance of the operators on the different parameters as provided and the result showed that the service providers  are in contravention of the provisions.

Paragraph 13 & Schedule 3 Paragraph 2 of the Quality of Service Regulation 2012, provides that any company which contravenes this provision will be liable to pay fine as follows:  The sum of N15, 000, 000. 00 (fifteen million naira only) for each parameter for a service contravened in the month of March, 2012.

In addition, a further sum of N2, 500, 000 (two million five hundred thousand naira only) for each parameter for a service for each day the contravention continued throughout the month of April, 2012.

The Nigerian arm of UAE based telecom Etisalat said in 2010 it would spend up to $500m on its network next year, as it looks to double its customer base to 12 million.

Etisalat faces stiff competition in Africa's most populous nation from South Africa's MTN Group and India's Bharti Airtel.

Etisalat started full commercial services in Nigeria in October 2008 after buying a 40 percent stake in a new Nigerian telephone operator from Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Co.