Nigeria's Communications Commission recently ordered the country's three dominant operators to stop forthwith any promotions and concentrate on improving their QoS. These operators are MTN, Globacom (Glo) and Celtel all on the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).
Announcing the directive, the Head of Public Affairs at NCC, Dave Imoko said that the fine of N5 million was in violation of its earlier directives. As a result, Globacom will pay half a million Naira for each day it defaulted since the deadline of the 14-day notice to stop its promotion.
He explained that on 6 July 2007, Globacom, alongside other affected operators, were issued a directive that the company failed to adhere to.
"Glo should not embark on and also discontinue any promotional activities that could directly or indirectly degrade the quality of service on its network for a period of ninety days in the first instance," the NCC noted.
The regulator also said that in spite of the clear terms of its earlier directive "Glo on 23 July 2007 published an advertisement on page 66 of ThisDay newspaper and commenced promotional activities, which has the effect of directly encouraging subscribers to make more minutes of call."
This, the NCC pointed out caused further deterioration of the quality of services on the Glo network, which resulted in the contravention of its directive.
He explained that the amount escalated to the tune of N5 million due to the inability of Globacom to pay the initial penalty of N500,000 each day the fine went unpaid.
"Despite the expiration of the 14-day period within which Globacom should have paid the fine, it has failed, refused and neglected to pay the fine. Apart from the additional N500,000 (five hundred thousand naira) to be paid by Globacom for everyday the fine remains unpaid."
The NCC further affirmed that it would not attend to any regulatory request made by Globacom during this period, just as it warned that the Commission would not condone any flagrant refusal to comply with its directives.
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