Four Telcos pay GhC950,000 ... Expresso still owes.

FOLLOWING the stern directive from the Minister of Communication, on the telecoms companies to pay up within 24 hours, the GhC1.2 million penalty imposed on them for providing poor quality telecom services to their customers, four of the five companies have fully complied.

MTN, the market leader in the telecoms industry, tiGO, Vodafone and Airtel, all multinationals, are reported to have fully paid a total of GhC950,000, being the penalty imposed on them for providing poor quality services to their subscribers in the country.

The Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr Paarock Vanpercy, who confirmed this exclusively to the Daily Graphic in Accra today, however, fell short of mentioning the fifth industry player which is yet to fully comply with the directive.

"Of the five Operators currently operational, four have paid in full and one has part-paid with the undertaking to complete payment shortly", he said. 

However, independent checks by the paper however, revealed that Expresso, which was fined GhC350,000 has paid part of the amount and has subsequently pleaded for time to enable it settle its penalty in full.

There has been a lot of drama between the sector ministry and the telecoms chamber over the issue since the Daily Graphic broke the news about the penalty fine and the subsequent publications of the amounts paid in compliance with the directive as of last week.

But Mr Vanpercy said; "Regrettably, this is all rather unnecessary drama."

"Quality of Service measurements have been with us for a while now and to play it out in such a standoffish manner, detracts from the relevance of what we are trying to achieve as a regulator", he added.

MTN, which maintained its lead as the country’s biggest mobile phone company with about 10 million subscribers, representing about 48.55 per cent of the market as of the end of September this year, was fined GhC 300,000.

Its poor quality service was noticed in the Upper East and West regions, Greater Accra and Brong Ahafo.

Airtel, the country’s fourth largest telecom operator, suffered the heaviest fine of GH¢350,000.

Expresso, which subscriber base dipped from 244,674 in January to 206,606 in August this year defaulted in its service quality in three regions; Western, Greater Accra and Brong Ahafo.

Vodafone which also defaulted in its service quality in three regions; Western, Greater Accra and Brong Ahafo, was fined Gh¢150,000.

The second largest operator, tiGO which paid earlier before the deadline was issued, was fined Gh¢100,000 being the least, for defaulting in only two regions; Western and the three northern regions.

When the Daily Graphic enquired from the telcos about why they paid the penalties after contesting the technical methodology used by the NCA in arriving at its results, they openly declined comment except to say that, they paid under protest.

The further indicated that they were in negotiations over the matter with the industry regulator.