Shittu Tasks NCC, Telecom Operators on Drop Calls

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, has charged telecom operators and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to stop call masking and investigate how it originates.

The Minister gave the charge in his Office recently during a meeting with the telecommunications operators over an increased rate of dropped calls and other unwholesome practices.

The charge came as a result of correspondence the minister received from Office of the Secretary to the Government Federal (OSGF) and the Clerk to the National Assembly on the Senate resolutions on the issues of increased rate of dropped calls and other unwholesome practices such as call masking by telecommunication network providers in Nigeria.

Mr Shittu enjoined NCC to investigate and invoke appropriate provisions of the law and other extant agreements to protect consumers and to refund them henceforth for disrupted calls caused by network issues and allow them have more control over their usage of data bundle as practised by telecom operators in countries like Kenya, South Africa.

He added that, NCC, Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and other regulatory agencies to carry out effective supervision of the telecom service providers to ensure regulatory excellence, operational efficiency and sterling service delivery and also to investigate the causes of the dropped calls, call masking and to ensure that all international calls are terminated in Nigeria with the phone number of actual caller.

The Network Service Providers in their response in their response outlined some of the causes of the dropped calls as some of the buildings lack In-building Solutions (IBS) for accessibility of calls, where a building like Federal Secretariat Complex has no in-building solutions that would make calls to be difficult, others are High Rising Buildings that overshadow other buildings  also affects calls, Fibre Optic Links tampering, separation of domestic rates from international calls amongst others.

They promised to work amicably with the relevant authorities as directed by the Minister.