The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has mandated telecom licensees in Nigeria to inform consumers of major service outages on their networks through media channels, stating the causes of the service interruption and the areas affected by the service interruption/outage, as well as the time that would be taken to restore service.
Consumers must also be informed one week in advance where operators have planned service outages.
According to a statement signed by NCC Ag. Head, Public Affairs, Nnenna Ukoha, the development, contained in the “Directive on Reportage of Major Network Outages by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs),” is part of the Commission’s drive to ensure timely resolution of outages, enhance quality of experience for telecom consumers, and keep consumers informed.
According to the Directive, Mobile Network Operators, Internet Service Providers and other operators that provide last mile services will also provide proportional compensation, including extension of validity, as may be applicable and in line with the provisions of the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations, where any major network outage continues for more than 24 hours.
