Telecommunications regulatory body , the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has released new quality of service (QoS) regulations for telecommunications companies, effective immediately.
The new QoS Regulations 2024 just released by the Commission sets specific parameters for the different network segments of the telcos covering 2G, 3G, and 4G and it focuses on parameters such as Drop Call Rates, Call Setup Success Rate, Traffic Congestion, among others.
According to the regulator, failure to meet the specified parameters will attract a N5 million fine, plus an additional N500,000 daily penalty for each infraction.
The NCC aims to achieve a 50% quality of service target by the end of the year, alongside other ambitious goals, including boosting broadband penetration to 70% by 2025.
The new QoS regulation may have come on the heels of the recent 50% telecom service target set by Dr. Bosun Tijani, minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy in his Strategic Agenda 2023.
According to a recent statement from the telecom regulator, other targets in Tijani’s Strategic Agenda 2023, include boosting Nigeria’s broadband penetration rate to 70% by the end of 2025; delivering data download speed of 25Mbps in urban areas and 10Mbps in rural areas by the end of 2025; and to provide coverage for, at least, 80% of the country’s population, especially the underserved and unserved populations by the end of 2026.
NCC has also expressed its resolve to meet this target before the end of this year.
The new regulations, however, are said by stakeholders to have come as telcos face challenges in mitigating the impacts of Naira devaluation and high inflation plaguing the industry, which may affect their ability to invest in network capacity and maintain quality services.
