Telcos told to improve service to consumers

The Acting Director General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr. Joe Anokye, has charged Mobile Network Operators to work on improving Quality of Service (QoS) and ensure that consumers are satisfied.

He said this at a meeting with Chief Technical Officers of the various Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) on Friday, 17th March, 2017 at the NCA Tower.

Present at the meeting were representatives from MTN, Tigo, Vodafone, Airtel, Glo, and Expresso. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss poor Quality of Service (QoS) being experienced by consumers.

According to Mr. Anokye, the Authority’s attention has been drawn to the QoS challenges which range from call drops, poor quality of voice and slow internet services among others. He informed the MNOs that their first line of action would be to resolve these issues within the Accra-Tema Metropolitan area, following which these efforts would be extended across Ghana.

The Acting Director General said that both the NCA and the MNOs have a shared responsibility to address these issues and ensure that consumers are satisfied with the level of service they receive from their respective providers. He added that ensuring compliance with QoS obligations has always been one of the key challenges for the NCA and in addressing the issue, it was necessary to engage with the CTOs who are directly responsible for these issues within their respective networks.

Contributing to the discussion, the CTOs also informed the Authority of the challenges they face in delivering the expected QoS and cited site acquisition, especially in the high-end residential areas as one of the main challenges. However, Mr. Anokye encouraged the MNOs to find solutions to the problems as consumer satisfaction is key and requires a good faith effort.

To end the meeting, all the MNOs were charged to present to the Authority, a Roadmap to address the QoS issues within Accra and Tema in a month’s time. The MNOs were also encouraged to seek the Authority’s support in resolving peculiar challenge when necessary by engendering team work with the NCA.

Representatives of the MNOs expressed their appreciation for the meeting, the NCA’s candid opinion and pledged to do their best to ensure consumer satisfaction.

The meeting was on the heels of the celebration of the World Consumer Rights Day during which the NCA engaged with consumers on knowing their rights. One key right is the Right to Good Service. QoS is important to consumers of communication services and consequently the NCA will extend this effort to other parts of the country.d