The Senate on Tuesday condemned the rate of dropped calls and inefficient operations of Telecommunications operators in Nigeria, especially the GSM companies.
The Senate accordingly called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other consumer interest bodies to apply sanctions where necessary.
Senate position was sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator Andy Uba (Anambra, APC) who lamented that Nigerians have been robbed of billions of naira by the companies.
Sen. Uba said telecommunication subscribers experience disturbing rate of dropped calls, low voice quality which he described as “speaking from the bottom of a fish tank.”
He also accused the GSM operators of not being able to control bundle usage which results to unplanned expiry of data bundles.
Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna, APC) corroborated Uba, saying; “GSM is part of our lives but has become a problem to our lives. It is unfortunate that NCC has not taken any actions on the service providers. We are concerned that this has become a way of life. The Senate should save the Thievery of Nigerians.”
Senator Barnabas Gemade (Benue, APC) added that “this situation is very bizarre. Their services are epileptic. These dropped are so rampant that you loose more money. Unlike in other countries who file for litigation, we are not principled enough to do that as we say we can’t spend a lot of money over 5 naira.”
In adopting the motion, Senate therefore urged the Nigerian Communication Commission to mete out sanctions according to the law to protect consumers through appropriate refunds.
“The Nigerian Communications Commission should invoke the appropriate provisions of the law and other extant agreements, to protect consumers where necessary and to refund them henceforth for disrupted calls caused by network issues and allow them have more control over usage of data bundles.
“The NCC; the Consumer Protection Council, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and other regulatory bodies carry out effective supervision of the telecoms service providers to ensure regulatory excellence; operational efficiency and sterling servicing delivery.”
