TMCnet News
Service Quality, Broadband Penetration Leave Much to Be Desired(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Emma Okonji reviews the impact of quality of service, broadband and PC penetration in the last six months Telecoms subscribers across all networks had bitter experiences over poor quality of service in the first quarter of the year, which lingered into the second quarter, until the Nigerian Communications Commissions (NCC) fined operators in the month of May, resulting in some slight improvement in the quality of service in June. The same was applicable to broadband and compter penetration, as Nigerians are yet to feel the impact in the reduction in the cost of bandwidth since the deployment of several submarine cables from Glo 1, MainOne and MTN WACS. With these submarine cables, coupled with the re-launch of NigComSat 1R into space on December 19, 2011, it was expected that Nigeria will have improved broadband internet access and PC rollout, supported by lower cost of bandwidth. But surprisingly, in the last six months, cost of bandwidth has not dropped and Nigerians still pay exorbitant fees for bandwidth, a situation that has contributed to low broadband and PC penetration in the country. Battle for Improved Service In the beginning, it was an entirely different ballgame, when subscribers were at peace with the quality of service offered by telecom providers, and calls could be made and received without abrupt dropped calls. That was in 2001, when Econet Wireless Nigeria, which has transformed severally to become Airtel Nigeria, was licensed alongside MTN Nigeria and the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) to offer GSM services. Shortly after, Globacom was licensed in 2003, while Etisalat in 2009. From 2001 to 2006, GSM operators enjoyed five years exclusivity period, where no other telecoms operator was licensed until the initial four were able to recoup substantive part of their investments. Throughout the exclusivity period, telecoms operators had stable service offerings. After the exclusivity period, there was liberalisation of the telecoms sector and the market was opened up to new competition. From that period, subscribers started experiencing challenges that forced the NCC to introduce some measures like the enforcement of key performance indicators (KPIs) and the ban on telecom promos, among others, which addressed the situation for a while. However, by the end of last year and early this year, the operators appeared to have relaxed on service quality. Dropped calls became the order of the day and subscribers were fraught with challenges, ranging from inability to make successful calls, inability to recharge, poor voice clarity and call diversion, to delayed and undelivered text messages. Worried by the sharp decline in the service offering, the NCC on May 11 imposed a combined fine of N1.17 billion on MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Eitsalat for the months of March and April, 2012. The commission gave them up till May 25 to pay the fine and warned that operators would pay a penalty of N2.5 million daily as long as the contravention persisted. Although the operators eventually paid the actual fine of N1.17 billion without the daily fine of N2.5 per operator, after 25 days of argument on why they should pay the fine, they blamed the NCC for the stringent KPIs, which the operators said were unachievable, owing to the prevailing circumstances in poor telecoms infrastructure rollout. Since the payment of the fine in June this year, subscribers witnessed a slight improvement in service quality but they continue to urge operator not to relent in rendering better services. Broadband Penetration There has been no significant change in the growth of Internet and broadband penetration in the country in the last six months, according to the latest release from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and Business Monitor International (BMI). The ITU report showed that Nigeria had 43.98 million internet users at the end of 2009, equivalent to a penetration rate of 28.5 per cent. The BMI report estimated that internet users in the country grew to 48.4 million at the end of 2011, to bring the internet penetration rate to 29.8 per cent. The report also forecast growth in the first half of 2012, owing to the deployment of submarine cables in the country. Yet, the forecast was barely noticeable in the first half of 2012. It was discovered that most Nigerian internet users continued to access the internet at work and through shared facilities such as cyber cafe. The high cost of bandwidth and PCs have been attributed as the main factor prohibiting the majority of Nigerians from becoming internet subscribers. Broadband penetration across the country still remained low, in spite of the avalanche of submarine cables in the country. Chief Executive Officer of MainOne Cable Company, Mrs. Funke Opeke, blamed the situation on low availability of infrastructure like the national backbone and the proprietary nature of dominant players that are controlling the industry. According to her, MainOne Cable spent over N39.78 billion ($255 million), within two years of rollout. The amount covers the cost of landing the cable from the United Kingdom, connecting West Africa, through Ghana to Nigeria and the cost of providing capacity to telecoms operators and internet service providers (ISPs), after the submarine cable landed the shores of Nigeria on July 2010. "In spite of the heavy investment in submarine cable, broadband penetration remained low as a result of low availability of infrastructure and the proprietary nature of dominant players that are controlling the industry," Opeke told THISDAY. According to her, the last-mile connectivity to homes and offices remained a vital part in broadband penetration. PC Growth Computer penetration also remained low in the last six months. Information technology experts blamed the low level penetration on low broadband access in the country. Chief Executive Officer of Pinet Informatics, one of the first ISPs in the country, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, said if there was broadband penetration in the country, people would be willing to purchase PCs and laptops and connect them to the internet from the comfort of their homes, instead of relying so much on internet access in offices. Ajayi, who blamed the situation on the inability of government to create the need for internet access for individuals, said by the time people have the need to access the internet, the number of people accessing the internet with their personal computers and laptops would increase, thus leading to increased PC penetration in the country. He called on government to put all its services online and make them easily accessible by Nigerians, who physically crowd government offices in the name of obtaining and filling government forms. He equally challenged government to subsidise the cost of laptops and also make PCs free for university students, for the purpose of academic research. Crossing the Rubicon In the area of service quality, Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo said unless government at all levels declare telecoms facilities as critical national infrastructure and protect them as such, vandals would continue to have a field day destroying telecom facilities, which he blamed for the poor services across the networks. He equally called on NCC to review the present KPIs for measuring the quality of service, which he said are unattainable, given the challenging operating environment in the country. In the area of broadband penetration, Opeke said, "What we need is liberalisation, open market and empowerment for service providers in providing the much needed capacity and access to second and third tiers operators who will get the capacity across to end users. We need the regulator to open up the market more and allow more players come on board." For PC penetration, Ajayi advised government to make its data available online, and create a need for people to access government information via online transactions. Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |