NCC, Telcos agree to revisit compensation policy for subscribers

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, and Senior Executives of telecommunication companies have agreed to revisit compensation policy which must be complied with at all times, in order to provide adequate relief for subscribers in the event of poor quality service.

The policy will ensure full compliance with the new Complaint Categories and Service Level Agreement (CC/SLA) consented to by the NCC and the service providers in the telecommunication ecosystem.

The Commission and telecommunication providers held a biannual meeting virtually, where they talked on consumer relations and complaint management processes and also assured on the compensation of telecommunication Subscribers.

At the meeting, it was decided that the Commission and telecom service providers will hold follow-up discussions on “Fair Usage Policy” on unlimited data bundles/data rollover, in order to provide clearer explanation and better understanding of the processes and procedures of the policy for the benefit of the consumers.

The Commission restated that its directive of June 2018 to service providers to commence implementation of data rollover from 26 June 2018, remains in force, which implies that a subscriber’s unused data must be rolled over to his/her subsequent data subscription.

Meanwhile, Service providers also agreed to ensure that senior level customer relations officers support their respective complaints management teams, to resolve complaints that were not resolved to the satisfaction of the consumers when such complaints were first reported.

The meeting further resolved that telecom service providers should explore initiating service level agreement with banks to ensure uniformity and speed in the resolution of complaints relating to billing.

All parties to the meeting equally agreed that telecom service providers will carry out pervasive consumer education and enlightenment campaigns about their products and services to ensure their subscribers have information they require to make informed decisions and get value for money spent.

The bi-annual meeting, which has held consistently since 2018, focuses on ensuring improvement in Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) in the telecom industry. It has served as a veritable platform for the Commission and service providers to discuss and agree on measures that will enhance prompt and effective consumer complaint resolution in telecom service provision in Nigeria.