In furtherance of its consumer-centric regulatory roles in the nation’s telecommunications sector, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday announced its plans towards achieving a 50% improvement in the quality of services (QoS) for consumers in the sector by the end of this year.
The Director, Public Affairs of the commission, Reuben Muoka, gave this hint in a news analysis where he highlighted the activities of the telecoms regulator over the past year, and the remarkable achievements it recorded.
Specifically, he maintained that the 50% improvement in QoS was one of the targets set by the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, and that the NCC management was working to achieve the target.
Muoka listed other targets in the minister’s ‘Strategic Agenda 2023’ as including, boosting Nigeria’s broadband penetration rate to 70% by the end of 2025, delivering a data download speed of 25Mbps in Urban areas and 10 Mbps in rural areas by the end of 2025; providing telecom coverage for at least 80% of the Nigerian population by end of 2026; reducing the gap of unconnected Nigerians in rural areas from 61% to less than 20% by 2027; and to secure 300% to 500% increase in broadband investments by end of 2027.
The Director clarified: “Acknowledging the criticality of resilient telecommunications infrastructure to a robust digital economy, Dr. Tijani’s Strategic Agenda 2023-2027 sets targets to achieve a 50 per cent improvement in Quality of Service (QoS) by the end of 2024; to boost Nigeria’s broadband penetration rate to 70 per cent by the end of 2025; to deliver data download speed of 25Mbps in urban areas and 10Mbps in rural areas by the end of 2025; to provide coverage for, at least, 80 per cent of the country’s population, especially the underserved and unserved populations by the end of 2026; to reduce the gap of unconnected Nigerians in rural areas from 61 per cent to less than 20 per cent by 2027; and to secure between 300 per cent to 500 per cent increase in broadband investment by the end of 2027.”
According to him, to address consumer complaints on data depletion, the Commission has directed Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to conduct an independent audit of their billing systems and is concluding a consultation process to simplify tariff plans. These initiatives would provide enhanced transparency to the consumer.
This is even as he disclosed that the Commission, rather than taking a national outlook on data collection for Quality-of-Service delivery, had adopted an approach where more granular data is collected from operators and analysed to determine quality of service at very small, local levels, to allow the deployment of optimised solutions or regulatory actions where needed.
