Nigeria's telecom bosses have been told to show up in person. The House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating falling service quality has summoned the chief executives of MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom, Mafab Communications and other operators to the National Assembly in Abuja on 28 October, according to Arbiterz and ITWeb.
The committee, chaired by Rep. Olumide Osoba, directed the Nigerian Communications Commission to make sure the executives attend, and told operators to submit documents on or before the hearing. Arbiterz reports that chief executives who fail to comply could face arrest. Osoba said some invited executives had repeatedly made excuses or sent lower-ranking officials, and pointed to point-of-sale businesses that depend on reliable networks.
The summons follows an MTN outage in early October that hit voice and internet services in Lagos, Oyo, Rivers, Delta and the Federal Capital Territory, ITWeb reports. Subscribers have complained for months of dropped calls and slow data.
What the regulator's numbers show
- Cable degradation caused 17,462 of the fibre cuts, vandalism 9,283 and connection problems 9,008
- Operators were denied access to their sites 23,954 times; insecurity accounted for 17,482 of those cases
- There were 3,732 equipment thefts, including 1,693 diesel thefts and 1,270 cable thefts
Those figures suggest part of the problem sits outside the operators' control, which is likely to be their defence on 28 October. Lawmakers counter that the companies earn heavily in Nigeria and should invest accordingly. Since April, the NCC has been applying a framework that compensates subscribers where voice, data or SMS fall below set standards, according to Arbiterz.
For the millions of Nigerians who pay, trade and work through their phones, the hearing is a rare public test of who answers for bad service.
