AirtelTigo picked up the heftiest fine of GHC11,635,000 after the National Communications Authority’s (NCA) assessment of Quality of Service compliance of Mobile Network Operators.
All other telcos also received sanctions with Glo being fined GHc4,460,000, MTN fined GHc9,080,000 and Vodafone receiving a GHc8,890,000 fine.
The Voice and Data quality and Coverage obligations of the telcos were tested but these functions focused on only Voice Services.
In a statement, the NCA noted that it undertook the quality of Service monitoring in the Greater Accra, Eastern, Western, Northern Regions and two districts in the Ashanti Region in the phase one of a nationwide monitoring exercise.
“The monitoring enabled the Authority to determine the MNOs which were unable to meet their Licence Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in some District Capitals with regards to QoS; Obligations for Coverage, Data, Voice and Speech Quality.”
The NCA met with the telcos and gave them three months (ending August 21, 2018) to address the infractions noted by the NCA.
Following the warning and the expiration of the deadline, the NCA followed up to ascertain if the infractions recorded had been resolved.
“This follow up monitoring revealed that though the KPIs in some District Capitals had improved, the MNOs were not able to meet the KPI thresholds as per their licences. The NCA, as a result, has sanctioned the MNOs,” the statement explained.
The sanctions are in line with the Licence for Mobile Cellular Operations in Ghana Schedule of Penalties.
(Gazetted in 2011) that, “failure to meet any of the QoS obligations in Annex D1” of the Mobile Cellular Licence shall attract a penalty of GHC50,000 per QoS parameter.
The telcos are to pay the fines within 30 days failing which they will be liable to pay the NCA a fine “of a one and half percent of the amount due for each month or part of a month after the stipulated time that the fee, penalty or other levy remained unpaid.”
The NCA added that it is “currently undertaking a second monitoring to re-evaluate the performance after the initial QoS monitoring for the remaining five (5) Regions, that is, Brong Ahafo, Volta, Upper East, Upper West, Central Regions and the remaining district capitals that were not tested in Q1 in the Ashanti Region.”
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Credit: citinewsroom.com
