Inform Consumers About Major Outages On Networks And Provide Proportional Compensation, NCC Mandates Service Providers As It Launches Portal

<h4>Inform Consumers About Major Outages On Networks And Provide Proportional Compensation<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that the Nigerian Communications Commission &lpar;NCC&rpar; has mandated telecom licensees in Nigeria to inform consumers of major service outages on their networks through media channels&comma; stating the cause&lpar;s&rpar; of the service interruption&comma; and the area&lpar;s&rpar; affected by the service interruption&sol;outage&comma; as well as the time that would be taken to restore service&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to a statement signed by Mrs&period; Nnenna Ukoha&comma; Ag&period; Head&comma; Public Affairs of NCC&comma; consumers must also be informed one week in advance where operators have planned service outages&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This development&comma; contained in the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Directive on Reportage of Major Network Outages by Mobile Network Operators &lpar;MNOs&rpar;&comma;” is part of the Commission’s drive to ensure timely resolution of outages&comma; enhance quality of experience for telecom consumers&comma; and keep consumers informed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the Directive&comma; Mobile Network Operators&comma; Internet Service Providers and other operators that provide last mile services will also provide proportional compensation&comma; including extension of validity&comma; as may be applicable and in line with the provisions of the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations&comma; where any major network outage continues for more than 24 hours&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It identifies three types of major outages to include&colon; Any network operational condition such as fibre cut due to construction&sol;access issues&sol;theft &amp&semi; vandalism and force majeure that impacts five per cent or more of the affected operator&&num;8217&semi;s subscriber base or five or more Local Government Areas &lpar;LGAs&rpar;&semi; having an occasion of unplanned outage of&comma; or complete isolation of network resources in 100 or more sites or five per cent of the total number of sites &lpar;whichever is less&rpar; or 1 cluster that lasts for 30 minutes or more&semi; and lastly&comma; 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&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In furtherance of this&comma; the Commission has further directed that all Major Outages are to be reported by operators through the Commission’s Major Outage Reporting Portal&comma; which is accessible to the public through the Commission’s website&comma; www&period;ncc&period;gov&period;ng&period; The portal additionally discloses the identity of the culprit responsible for the disruption&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Commenting on the Directive and the Major Outage Reporting Portal&comma; the Director&comma; Technical Standards and Network Integrity&comma; Engr&period; Edoyemi Ogor stated that&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Commission has trialled the reporting process and portal with operators for some months now before issuing the directive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;By providing consumers and stakeholders in the telecommunications industry with timely and transparent information on network outages&comma; we are entrenching a culture of accountability and transparency&period; This approach also ensures that culprits are held responsible for sabotage to telecommunications infrastructure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>This also aligns with our broader commitment to the effective implementation of the Executive Order signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu&comma; which designates telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure &lpar;CNII&rpar;&period; It reinforces the need to safeguard these assets&comma; given their centrality to national security&comma; economic stability&comma; and the everyday lives of Nigerians&comma;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em> Ogor said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;