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NCC warns M - Tel to restore the operational activities (Nigeria)

  • September 15th, 2008
  • 12:18 pm

The Nigerian Communications Corporation warns M-Tel parent Transcorp for resotration of the cellco’s operational activities back to an acceptable level or it risks facing penalties.
NCC exec-Vice Chairman, Ernest Ndukwe, has stated that new rigid parameters for regulation of the telecom industry will be enforced in few months and M-Tel seems endangered of being sanctioned heavily in case it fails to improve. ‘The NCC is unhappy about the degrading fortune of the company’, Ndukwe said.

   

Nigeria records 53.33 million active phone subscribers (Nigeria)

  • August 7th, 2008
  • 10:59 am

Nigeria reportedly recorded, at the end of June, a total of 53.33 million active phone subscribers. According to Nigeria Communications Commission, the latest figures show an increase of more than 2 million over the 49.6 million recorded at the end of May. The teledensity ratio rose to 38.09% from 35.43%. At the end of the Q2, there were 2.11 million CDMA mobile subscribers, 4.1% of the total. The number of active mobile GSM lines rose to 49.62 million from 43.79 million.

   

Celtel Nigeria risks fine over service quality

  • July 6th, 2007
  • 10:15 am

Mobile operator Celtel Nigeria has been ordered to suspend promotional activities until it improves quality of service on its network. In an ongoing campaign by the Nigerian Communications Commission, the mobile operator was told to specifically stop its ‘Sunday free calls bonus’ offer and not start any new promotions that could encourage further network traffic for a period of 90 days. The operator risks a fine NGN 5 million plus NGN 500,000 per day for violating the order. The NCC is also requiring the company to submit regular reports over the next three months on network quality parameters. It has already imposed similar orders on rival MTN and warned Globacom. Celtel disputed an earlier warning from the NCC, saying it was only operating at 60 percent of network capacity and any degradation in service was not the result of promotions. It also called for more details from the NCC on its service quality data.

   

NCC puts out tender for 800MHz spectrum (Nigeria)

  • June 22nd, 2007
  • 7:03 am

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced a tender for existing Nigerian telecoms licensees to bid for a 3.75MHz allocation in the 800MHz spectrum band covering 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The spectrum is being offered by the NCC on a technology neutral basis. The reserve price for the frequencies has been set at NGN400 million (USD3.2 million) and the concession will be valid for a period of five years in the first instance. Based on the number of companies that have already indicated interest for spectrum in the 800MHz band, the NCC has decided to hold an auction. The deadline for the submission of bid applications and an ‘intention to bid’ deposit of NGN40 million is 9 July 2007. The auction itself is slated for 17 July.

   

NCC gives GSM networks seven days to buck up their ideas

  • June 19th, 2007
  • 3:10 pm

Nigeria’s four GSM operators will receive sanctions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) next week for poor quality of service to their customers, reports local paper the Tribune. The decision to sanction the operators comes after six years of persistent complaints from subscribers over dwindling quality of services. A source in the NCC said yesterday that the operators would be fined NGN500,000 (USD4,000) for each area in which they failed to render good service from next week. The source said the NCC has sent ‘directions’ to the operators to improve their service within seven days or ‘risk the hammer of the regulator’. Areas of concern include wrong billing, bounced SMS, dropped calls, unregistered and fraudulent marketing and poor treatment of customers by call centre staff. Another source at the NCC said that ‘directions’ was a technical term used in the telecom industry meaning ‘indictment for poor operation’. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Nigeria’s four GSM operators are, in order of market share: MTN Nigeria, Glo Mobile, Celtel Nigeria and M-Tel. They shared a total of just under 28 million subscribers at the end of 2006.

   

 

 

14 firms interested in Taiwan WIMAX permits

  • May 16th, 2007
  • 6:08 am

More than a dozen companies are thought to be vying for the six regional WiMAX licences in Taiwan, with the country’s dominant wireline and wireless provider Chunghwa among them. A China Post report cites the country’s telecoms regulator NCC, which says that 14 groups have so far shown interest in the concessions. Six regional licences are due to be auctioned in July, three each in the north and south of the country. One licence in each region will be reserved for a new market entrant. Winning bidders will be able to form partnerships with other licensees to enable them to provide a nationwide service. More information on WiMAX deployments can be found in TeleGeography’s WiMAX Market Tracking Service.