By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Telecommunications network operators in Nigeria have been described as thieves by the Senate for allegedly robbing Nigerians billions of Naira through dropped calls and poor services.
At the plenary on Tuesday, one of the lawmakers, Mr Andy Uba, said the increasing rate of dropped calls and other unwholesome practices by the operators in Nigeria have led to the loss of hard earned billions of Naira of subscribers.
Contributing to deliberations on the plenary, Mr Wakili Ali said the service providers disturb our phones with unsolicited messages and also deduct money.
On his part, Mr Shehu Sani accused the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) of being compromised and failing in its duty to bring GSM providers proper regulation.
In his contribution, Senator Omo Agege urged the Senate to direct the NCC to ensure that all international calls are terminated in Nigeria by the actual phone number of the caller.
At the end of the debate, the Senate strongly condemned the inefficiency of GSM network operators in Nigeria resulting in poor service delivery.
It further urged the NCC to invoke the appropriate provisions of the law and other extant agreements, to protect consumers where necessary and to refund them henceforth for disrupted calls caused by network issues and allow them have more control over their usage of data bundles as practiced by telecom operators in countries like Kenya (Safaricom), South Africa, etc.
The Senate also urged the NCC, the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and other regulatory agencies to carry out effective supervision of the telecoms service providers to ensure regulatory excellence, operational efficiency and sterling service delivery.
The upper chamber of the National Assembly also directed the NCC and other relevant agencies to carry out a thorough investigation of the causes of dropped calls in the GSM network and come up with innovations that will improve customer experiences.
In was gathered that the Senate also directed its Committees on Communications and Trade and Investment to further look into the issues raised by the lawmakers.
The Senate President, Mr Bukola Saraki, said the Committee on Communication should look into dropped calls because millions of Nigerians, who use these networks, should get value for it.
