By Jemimah Wellington, JKNewsMedia Reporter
THE NIGERIAN Communications Commission (NCC) has issued a strict directive mandating all licensed telecom operators to notify customers promptly about any major service disruption.
Under the new order, operators must inform the public of the cause, affected regions, and estimated time of restoration via media platforms and the Commission’s Major Outage Reporting Portal.
Telecom companies are also required to provide proportional compensation, including service validity extensions, where outages persist beyond 24 hours.
This measure follows provisions outlined in the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations, reinforcing the rights of telecom consumers during periods of diminished service quality.
In cases of planned service outages, operators must inform consumers at least one week in advance.
The Commission’s directive is designed to strengthen transparency, enhance user experience, and ensure accountability across Nigeria’s telecom landscape.
The Major Outage Reporting Portal, publicly accessible through the Commission’s website, provides real-time details of service disruptions and their causes.
It has been trialled for months and is now fully operational, according to the NCC’s Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Edoyemi Ogor.
He emphasised the importance of holding parties accountable, particularly in instances of sabotage to critical telecommunications infrastructure.
The directive categorises major outages into three key types, according to the NCC;
The first includes incidents such as fibre cuts, vandalism, or access restrictions that affect five per cent or more of an operator’s subscribers or at least five Local Government Areas.
The second covers any complete isolation of 100 or more sites, or five per cent of all sites, lasting 30 minutes or longer.
The third addresses significant network quality degradation in the top ten states by traffic volume.
In addition, the NCC notes that by aligning with the Executive Order recognising telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure, its directive underlines the essential role of network integrity in safeguarding national security and economic stability.
Thus, operators must now ensure swift reportage and remediation or face regulatory consequences.
