The debate about poor
quality telecom service has been with us for long and seems not to be going
away. Charles Benoni Okine analysis
the situation and proposes the way forward.
In the last six months or more, quality of service from the
mobile telecom operators in the country has not been up to the required
standard.
Call drop; call terminating unexpectedly, call-setup and lack
of access to data services on phones and tablets among many other challenges are
but a few.
The challenges have given cause to many subscribers to
bitterly complain about the services from the telcos and have used every forum
possible to express their concerns.
In their defense, the telecos have attributed the problems to
the recent erratic supply of electricity to their base stations, and cable cuts
which affects their services.
For instance, according to the Ghana Chamber of
Telecommunications for instance, the total official count for cable cuts for
2012 has gone up to 1,605 cuts, which is more than triple the total number
recorded cuts in 2011.
Records kept by operators show that 75 per cent of these cuts
are caused during road constructions.
In January alone, one network operator was said to have reported
some 85 cable cuts which costs more than GHC 17,000 to repair a cut.
Other causes of cable cuts are vandalism, illegal mining,
bush fires and theft especially of copper cables.
The Chief Executive of the GTC, Mr Kweku Sakyi-Addo, had also
cited challenges with electricity as one of the factors affecting the quality
of mobile telecommunication services.
To him, electricity, which constitutes 50 per cent of
operators’ operational expenditure, has been inadequate lately. The lack of
electricity and fluctuations when power is available also affect equipment and
consequently quality of
Mr Sakyi-Addo said other factors causing the challenges such
as drop calls and call set-up time across networks were a function of the
social and economic environment.
He said cable cuts, thefts and bottlenecks in rolling out
telecommunication infrastructure all contributed to the poor service.
Admittedly, it has become a common practice for cables to be cut
primarily during road construction.
One network, as of January 2013 to date, has for instance
suffered 85 cable cuts already.
Critical sites planned to provide capacity and coverage in
identified areas had not been built due to acquisition and community agitation
problems.
It is also on record that there are the industry’s age-old
disputes with assemblies over discriminatory and exorbitant business operating
permit fees or charges for telecoms and associated infrastructure such as masts.
Based on the complains from the public and the excuses of the
telcos, the National Communications Authority (NCA) came out to express its
resolve to ensure that the telecom companies in the country provide quality
service to their customers at all times.
It said there is in place, monitoring teams that monitor the
service quality of all the players in the industry across the country adding
that, those which are found to have fallen short of the quality standards are
sanctioned per the rules governing the industry.
The Director-General of the NCA, Mr Paarock Vanpercy, told
the Graphic Business in an interview that “the sanctions meted to the operators
are done regularly and, therefore, it is not a new thing”.
He acknowledged the challenges that the customers faced with
their network operators but noted that the NCA has always ensured that it
abided by its mandate to check and deal with operators whose service fell short
of the required standards.
The NCA Director-General would not hold brief for the telecom
companies but noted that the operators are faced with challenges including
fibre cuts by contractors while thieves also tamper with the cables.
He urged the road agencies and other statkeholders to contact
the telecom companies whenever they were about constructing road among others for
them to be told where the cables have been laid to avoid any disruptions.
Mr Vanpercy said the telecoms chamber and the NCA are in
constant consultations with the stakeholders and expressed the hope that in due
course; all these will be a thing of the past.
Meanwhile, he added that, where there are genuine breaches of
the regulations to provide quality services, the NCA will not relent to slap
fines on those operators that fall short of the standards.
Way forward
Mr Sakyi-Addo said there was the need for all needed to
understand that it was only when telecom infrastructure was built that quality
of service would improve in communities because it was the telecom
infrastructure that carried the service.
“Every call drop is lost revenue to the government and the
operator and is costly inconvenience to the subscriber,” he acknowledged, but
added that after investing nearly $6 billion in infrastructure, the last thing
any operator wanted was to deny subscribers access to its network in a very
competitive industry.
The claim by the chamber and the duties of the NCA can be
described as laudable by the excuses must end somewhere sometime.
The issue of poor quality of service has existed since the
telecom operators began serving the country yet they have shifted the goal post
to poor electricity supply, cable cuts and all.
It is necessary, therefore for the government, road
contractors, assemblies and all Ghanaians to police the cables of the telecos
while giving them access to build more masts.
If at the end of the day, all these are provided, yet they
continue to deliver poor services, the public can then agitate while the NCA is
encouraged to make the sanctions applied more punitive.
But until that is resolved, the challenges should be considered
facts and real that demands collective action.
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