The Senate on Thursday summoned the management of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) over the high rate of dropped calls and improper regulation of sim cards.
According to Premium Times, It also urged the commission to direct network providers to expand network infrastructures and monitor compliance to reduce the rate of dropped calls experienced by Nigerians.
Dropped calls are interruptions that happen during a phone conversation. It occurs when a call ends abruptly, by neither of the callers, due to technical errors.
The summon followed deliberation on a motion on the increasing rate of dropped calls and other unwholesome practices by telecommunications network operators in Nigeria sponsored by Buhari Abdulfatai and 20 other senators.
Leading the debate, Mr Abdulfatai complained that Nigerians do not have the power to control bundle usage, nor the choice to restrict browsing.
He said all the GSM operators in Nigeria have recently been experiencing terrible congestions on their networks, thus, denying subscribers the ability to make or receive calls successfully.
“Operators also have an unfair advantage with dropped calls from per-minute users as callers end up paying for an entire minute if a call drops in between, especially within the first few seconds.
“Despite the warning issued by the NCC to telecom operators using the dropped call mechanism to defraud Nigerians by deducting money from phone users illegally, no serious penalty has been issued against any operator to date,” he said.
Mr Abdulfatai explained that four major operators, namely MTN, Airtel, Etisalat and Globacom, could not provide the rate of dropped calls on their networks.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who described poor network as a menace, assured that the issue will be tackled.
“This time will be different. We pay through our noses and we are unjustifiably treated by these network providers. Everybody comes here and treat us differently. The DSTV and others do almost the same thing. At the appropriate time, we will have a public hearing.
“The NCC and other relevant agencies will be put to test. We feel they are inefficient and they are not doing enough. We are going to bark and bite this time around and if it requires blacklisting the operators, we will do that,” he said.
