Senate summons NCC leadership over high rate of dropped calls

The Senate on Thursday summoned the management of the Nigerian
Communication Commission (NCC) over the high rate of dropped calls
and improper regulation of sim cards.

It also urged the commission to direct network providers to
expand network infrastructures and monitor compliance to reduce the
rate of dropped calls experienced by Nigerians.

Dropped calls are interruptions that happen during a phone
conversation. It occurs when a call ends abruptly, by neither of
the callers, due to technical errors.

The summon followed deliberation on a motion on the increasing
rate of dropped calls and other unwholesome practices by
telecommunications network operators in Nigeria sponsored by Buhari
Abdulfatai and 20 other senators.

Leading the debate, Mr Abdulfatai complained that Nigerians do
not have the power to control bundle usage, nor the choice to
restrict browsing.

He said all the GSM operators in Nigeria have recently been
experiencing terrible congestions on their networks, thus, denying
subscribers the ability to make or receive calls successfully.

“Operators also have an unfair advantage with dropped calls from
per-minute users as callers end up paying for an entire minute if a
call drops in between, especially within the first few seconds.

“Despite the warning issued by the NCC to telecom operators
using the dropped call mechanism to defraud Nigerians by deducting
money from phone users illegally, no serious penalty has been
issued against any operator to date,” he said.

Mr Abdulfatai explained that four major operators, namely MTN,
Airtel, Etisalat and Globacom, could not provide the rate of
dropped calls on their networks.

The senators took turns to express their displeasure at the high
rate of dropped calls. They said they believe such practice does
not happen in Kenya, South Africa and Ghana, and should not happen
in Nigeria.

They also blamed the NCC for not regulating the activities of
the network providers as well as failing to invoke the necessary
sanctions against this unwholesome practice.

Abba Moro (PDP, Benue South) said the registration process of
sim cards is flawed.

According to him, the issue is a clear exposition of the abuse
to which the Nigerian people and government are subjected.

He stressed the need to recommend and follow up the process of
sanctions “because the regulatory agencies are not doing
enough.”

“Dropped calls have become a problem. In addition to sanctioning
network providers, our regulatory agencies must also be held
responsible,” he said.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who described poor network as
a menace, assured that the issue will be tackled.

“This time will be different. We pay through our noses and we
are unjustifiably treated by these network providers. Everybody
comes here and treat us differently. The DSTV and others do almost
the same thing. At the appropriate time, we will have a public
hearing.

“The NCC and other relevant agencies will be put to test. We
feel they are inefficient and they are not doing enough. We are
going to bark and bite this time around and if it requires
blacklisting the operators, we will do that,” he said.

While condemning the inefficiency of GSM network providers in
the country, the Senate urged the NCC to protect consumers where
necessary and to refund them for disrupted calls caused by network
issues.

It also asked the commission to allow users have more control
over their usage of data bundles.

It also directed the NCC and other relevant agencies to carry
out a thorough investigation of the causes of dropped calls in the
GSM network and come up with innovations that will improve customer
experiences.

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