THREE leading telecom companies in the country have again been slapped with penalty fines totaling GhC250,000, by the industry regulator, National Communications Authority for what it described as “various Quality of Service (QoS) infractions after a quality of service tests for March, this year.
The companies are MTN, the industry market leader and second place Vodafone and tiGO.
The companies are MTN, the industry market leader and second place Vodafone and tiGO.
According information posted on the regulator’s website, “MTN was penalized fifty thousand Ghana cedis (GhC50, 000.00) for call setup delays in the Central Region and a further one hundred thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢100,000.00) for call congestion in the Brong Ahafo and Central regions”.
Vodafone which overtook tiGO to become the second biggest telecom company in terms of subscriber market share was on the other hand sanctioned to pay GhC50, 000.00 for Call Setup delays in the Western Region.
Vodafone which overtook tiGO to become the second biggest telecom company in terms of subscriber market share was on the other hand sanctioned to pay GhC50, 000.00 for Call Setup delays in the Western Region.
Third placed-tiGO was slapped with the same amount as in the case of Vodafone as penalty for signaling congestion in the Brong-Ahafo region.
Sanctions to Airtel on call congestion in the Brong-Ahafo region were suspended pending the completion of their expansion plan in Sunyani.
Sanctions to Airtel on call congestion in the Brong-Ahafo region were suspended pending the completion of their expansion plan in Sunyani.
Meanwhile, the company has up to end of June this year to complete that project.
IN a related development, sanctions according to the NCA, to Expresso on call setup delays were also suspended until July this year for infractions in the Eastern Region when coverage is expected to improve in Koforidua.
IN a related development, sanctions according to the NCA, to Expresso on call setup delays were also suspended until July this year for infractions in the Eastern Region when coverage is expected to improve in Koforidua.
The company was also directed to improve coverage in Tarkwa by September 2012.
Barely six months ago, MTN was fined GhC300,000 for poor quality service noticed by the regulator in the Upper East and West regions, Greater Accra and Brong Ahafo.
Airtel, at the time, suffered the heaviest fine of GH¢350,000 while Expresso 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.
tiGO was fined Gh¢100,000 being the least, for defaulting in only two regions; Western and the three northern regions.
The Telecoms Chamber at the time had expressed misgivings about the fine saying that it was not deliberate for the operators to offer poor quality services to their customers particularly at a time when competitions among them has heightened.
It blamed the problem on a number of issues including fibre cuts by ongoing construction works in various parts of the country and also the stealing of the fibre cables among many other things.
But the sector Minister, Mr Haruna Iddrisu has described the excuses of the Chamber as untenable and indicated that much as the government was ready to help ameliorate the challenge there was the need for the operators to give their customers value for money.
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