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Assessing Telecoms' Achievements, Challenges in the Last Four Years [analysis](AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) So much have been achieved in the telecoms industry in the last four years in spite of the challenges of poor service quality, writes Emma Okonji. From 2010 to 2014, so much could be said to have been achieved in the telecoms sector, even though the industry was fraught with challenges of poor service quality within the period. During this period, the industry under the leadership of the current Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, witnessed a lot of policy initiatives, which have continued to impact positively on the industry with multiplier effect on other sectors of the economy, and on the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Telecoms investment jumped from $18 billion in 2010 to $32 billion as at July 2014. Within this period, telecoms subscriber number also rose from 88 million in 2010 to 130 million as at July 2014. The achievements are not unconnected with the implementation of the six-point agenda of Juwah, which he released on assumption of duty on July 29, 2010. The agenda includes consolidating the progress made before he came to office; taking drastic measures to improve service quality; enhancing broadband implementation; improving competition among telecoms players; providing diversified choices for consumers at good quality and price; as well as improving the telecoms regulator's presence in the international space. In the last four years, the NCC has been implementing various policies and putting in place measures towards ensuring that they address some of the challenges of the industry. Some stakeholders who spoke with THISDAY were of the view that the telecoms regulatory body has achieved significant progress in four years, even though they maintained that a lot still needed to be done, especially in the areas of service quality and infrastructure rollout. According to them, teledensity moved up from 63 per cent in 2010 to more than 90 per cent in 2014, which they described as success for the telecoms industry. They however said the issue of poor service quality has not been fully addressed and would want NCC to do more in that regard. Achievements The increased telephony penetration recorded in the last four years has also contributed remarkably to the Nigerian economy in terms of contribution to GDP. According to Juwah, "We have increased it from 5 per cent when I came in to 8.5 per cent as announced recently during the rebasing of the economy. Finally, looking at investment in the sector, we increased it from $18 billion in 2010 to more than $32 billion today. The sector has created the most stable jobs and as investments grew in the past four years, more jobs, both direct and indirect have been created and are still being created." However, from the service quality standpoint, stakeholders say the regulator could do, with the introduction of Key Performance Indicator (KPI), aimed at ensuring better service quality delivery across networks. The NCC also undertook review of the old interconnect rates, following its expiration last year. In telecoms parlance, interconnection rates are the charges which one telecoms operator charges another for terminating calls on its network and one of the key premises for open and fair competition in a telecoms market is an effective interconnection regime. The NCC decided to adopt the asymmetric rates for the new interconnect regime in recognition of late entrants and the commencement of the unified service licensing regime to create an enabling environment for healthy competition in the telecoms market. Another initiative put in place by the NCC is the setting of price cap on local SMS at N4.00 with effect from February 5, 2013. The new price cap is a 60 per cent reduction from the former price that was N10 per SMS for off-net and N5 per SMS for on-net text messages and this has continued to earn NCC praise from subscribers. In the last four years, the NCC has also gone ahead to address the issue of dominant operators that almost stifle smaller operators in the industry. NCC declared them as dominant players with some limitations put in place so as to ensure that their dominance in the industry would not jeopardise healthy competition in the sector. Speaking on this decision recently, Juwah said: "We have also improved competition by looking at the competition space within the telecoms industry, looking at operators that are dominant; imposing some limitations on them." He added: "I must say, like I have always said that dominance is nothing bad but what you do with your dominance matters. Dominance means that you have been doing everything correct, you have been doing things well that is why you are dominating, but if you use your dominance in uncompetitive practice, then that is when the regulator intervenes." The NCC has also made remarkable achievement in the area of Mobile Number Portability (MNP), when it launched the service in April 2013, which was another initiative that allows telecoms subscribers the freedom to move their telephone numbers to any network of choice in search of better service quality. At the launch in Lagos, stakeholders, including telecoms operators, and the subscribers, described the service as game changer that would not only provide wider choices for the subscribers, but would also afford them the opportunity to get improved service delivery as operators scramble to invest more on their networks. Broadband penetration The NCC has also continued to drive broadband penetration in the country as part of the six-point agenda. Already, the regulator is encouraging investment into the country, licensing more spectrum to the operators to drive broadband and partnering with various stakeholders to ensure that all the challenges facing deployment are achieved. Spectrum licensing In February, this year, NCC licensed the 30MHz of spectrum in the 2.3 gigahertz spectrum to a wholesale company. Also the NCC has announced its plan to license 2.6 gigahertz spectrum to operators for which a stakeholder forum is planned to be held in Lagos to discuss the way forward on how to license the new spectrum. Among other laudable initiatives, which the NCC has put in place is also the unveiling of a corporate governance code for the telecoms players in Lagos recently. With the unveiling of the industry-specific code of corporate governance, the NCC said it intends to enthrone global best practices among the boards of telecoms players. The requirement for good corporate governance does not wane on account of size or type of business affiliations. Industry players and other stakeholders are now placing higher demand on companies to demonstrate these principles. Thus, NCC is determined to promote corporate governance for the telecommunications industry," the commission said recently. Challenges In spite of the many achievements of the industry in the last four years, such achievements did not come without challenges, especially in the area of service quality. Although the NCC tried to address the issue, it persisted, a situation that compelled it to deploy several means like KPIs, fines, ban on SIM card sales, as well as consultative meetings with telecoms operators, but the situation persisted even though significant impact has been achieved. The challenges include persistent drop calls, poor voice clarity, call diversion, inability to recharge phones, delay in text message delivery, among others. According to Juwah, the challenges have reduced in the last four years, as the number of successful calls are far more than unsuccessful calls. He said although countries in the US, UK and Europe still face network challenges, but the NCC would stop at nothing in ensuring that Nigerians enjoy the best of service quality across networks. Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |