NCC mandates telecom operators to inform consumers of service outages

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has mandated telecom licensees in Nigeria to inform consumers of major service outages on their networks through media channels.

On Sunday, a statement signed by Nnenna Ukoha, the acting head of Public Affairs at the NCC, said the directive requires operators to provide information on the cause of the outage, affected areas, and estimated restoration time.

Telecom service outages have been a recurring issue in Nigeria, affecting millions of subscribers and impacting daily life, businesses, and the economy.

The causes of these outages include infrastructure challenges, fibre optic cable cuts, overloaded networks, and natural disasters, amongst others.

On Sunday, the NCC said consumers must be informed one week in advance in cases where operators have planned service outages.

“This development, contained in the ‘Directive on Reportage of Major Network Outages by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs),’ is part of the commission’s drive to ensure timely resolution of outages, enhance the quality of experience for telecom consumers, and keep consumers informed,” the statement said.

The directive noted that 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.

It identifies types of major outages to include any network operational condition such as fibre cut due to construction/access issues/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,” it added.

In furtherance of this, the NCC directed that all major outages are to be reported by operators through the commission’s major outage reporting portal, which is accessible to the public through the commission’s website.

“The portal additionally discloses the identity of the culprit responsible for the disruption,” it said.

Commenting on the directive and the major outage reporting portal, Edoyemi Ogor, the Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity, stated, “The commission has trialled the reporting process and portal with operators for some months before issuing the directive.

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“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 sabotaging 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.”