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nairaland.net • View topic - Are GSM Users Getting Better Services?

Are GSM Users Getting Better Services?

Are GSM Users Getting Better Services?

Postby Richard Akindele » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:58 am

The advent of Global Sys tem of Mobile Communi cations (GSM) has brought about new opportunities and challenges particularly to the millions of its users across Nigeria.

Many Nigerians believe that the GSM revolution in Nigeria is the second independence for Nigeria, considering the ample opportunities it offers and the ability it offers for stress- free communication. This opportunity came with its challenges, especially with the fragile relationship between consumers and the service providers. Due to the daily expansion of the GSM, the networks continued to experience problems such as difficulties in interconnectivity, loading of recharge cards and unnecessary deduction of subscribers' money as a result of breakdown of systems.

The increase in such complaints by the subscribers led to the intervention by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to create a parliament that brings together, stakeholders with the aim of strategising for better services. The forum - Cons umer Parliament, is as popular as GSM use in the country, but the questions many Nigerians are asking are, has this forum served it purpose? do the operators bother to attend to problems tendered to them through such parliaments?, have services really improved beyond the point that necessitated such forum, or is it the usual "rip-off"?. Telephone subscribers in the country have raised concern on the monthly Parliament which would be three years old this month. Many subscribers believe that the parliament has not provided the desired impact on service quality while others are of the opinion that while the monthly event is achieving some of its aims, many things are still not being done right by the operators.

Business Trust findings revealed that many telecom subscribers and consumer protection groups have lost interest in the forum.

One of such groups is the GSM subscribers of Nigeria (GSN). Members of the group, in an interview with Business Trust at the weekend, said the p arliament is only there to promote and propagate the NCC agenda which have not resulted in better services for consumers. According to Lawyer Ebun Adegoruwa, the president of GSN, the NCC and its parliament have not creditably served the country. He said the parliament has been a show of shame and a kind of propaganda to sell some persons. His words: "The monthly telecom consumers' parliament has always been a shame to this country. The parliament is a rallying point to propagate the hidden ambition of one person. It has not had any positive impact whatsoever on any subscriber in this country. It was conceived and programmed towards promoting someone and his agenda. It is hypocrisy, it is a shame.

A subscriber, Mr Anthony Abana, told Business Trust in Kaduna that subscribers continue to lodge their complaints without serious change. He suggested that GSM users who feel cheated should to lodge their complaints collectively under a common body for possible legal tussles instea d of relying on the consumer parliament. Not only that, he said, subscribers should also channel their complaints to the Consumers Protection Council (CPC) because, according to him, that is the only credible agency that has been effectively fighting the GSM operators.

On the claim by the GSM consultative forum of Nigeria that the minister of communications has directed the CPC to steer clear of the GSM operators in the country, a subscriber, Mallam Yinusa Adamu says the directive is in bad faith and would further create more problems for GSM users in the country.

Also towing the same line, a Lagos-based IT professional, Chibuzor Okonkwo described the monthly telecom Consumers Parliament as a mere talk show and not anything serious. On the other hand, Lovithe Eze, is call center operator at Wuse Zone 6, Abuja. She believes that subscribers are getting the ease with the Consumer Parliament. "I have never attends the consumer parliament because I don't have the time, but from what I have been watching on Television, the forum is important and it assists in telling the operators our problems" she said.

"I am very sure the consumer parliament has created challenges for operators, and we are seeing the results", said Husaini James, student, 23, who believes that the consumer parliament is a good interaction and should be encouraged. According to him, sometimes, if you have a problem, even if you call a customer care centre, your problem is not attended to, but in the consumer parliament it is live and direct. "Several times they have no answer to give when customers quiz them at the parliament", he said.

But according to Sadi Yusuf, a researcher with the National Assembly, the consumer parliament doesn't serve it purpose. Hear him: "the essence of the parliament is to address the complaints by the consumers and take disciplinary actions against any operator who continues to exploit its subscribers but it seems like they are not doing much in that re gard. "Subscribers are everyday being exploited by the operators and the networks are developing one problem or the other but it seems like NCC is unaware of that, we are yet to see any operator being punished for such exploitation, The consumer parliament should be the right avenue for punishing the operators if they persist on exploiting Nigerians," he said.

Sharing the same view with Mr. Yusuf was Abubakar Umar, an Abuja-based, worker. According to Umar, the consumer parliament fails to address the enormous complaints in the telecom industry. He said the regulatory body is now left with the choice to look inward and initiate another measure to address public complaints, adding that subscribers no longer have interest in such meeting because their complaints are not being looked into.

Anthonia Okeke, 21, another call centre operator in Abuja said he doesn't have confidence in the consumer parliament. "I have never had confidence in it because I have so many complaints to l odge, similar to those which my friends have lodged but were unaddressed." A subscriber, Nafisah Tajudeen, a house-wife, told Business Trust that she had complained severally to the NCC's consumer's affair bureau about one thing or the other bothering on her network of choice, but the NCC has failed to help her out. She said each time she watched telecast of the monthly parliament and heard the NCC executive vice-chairman speak, "I do not believe in any of his directives to the operators because I know they would not comply with the directive. She advised the NCC "not to be afraid of the operators but always call them to order in the real sense of it."

The president of the National Telecom Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS), Engr. Adeolu Ogunbanjo believes that anybody who said the NCC's parliament has not been fruitful is "being mischievous, a liar, and an enemy of progress." He said the NCC has achieved a lot through the monthly event, adding that a common achievement is the printing and selling of lower or cheaper denominations of recharge cards. "No one should castigate the NCC and its parliament. He or she has failed to reason like a sensible and rationale human being. Who in Nigeria does not know that NCC, under Ndukwe, has used the telecom consumer parliament to bring down prices of sim-packs, tariffs and prices of recharge cards? I mean there are many lower and affordable recharge cards and there is extension of validity period. I have lost count of the achievements. And all these, as we all know were made possible through the agitation of some of us, the subscribers and groups in the monthly parliament," the NATCOMS president said. He described the parliament as "a great blessing to Nigerian telecom subscribers, adding that many sectors are borrowing from the telecom parliament to do similar thing in their sectors.

The Chairman, GSM Consultative Forum, Mr Ogugua Chioke said the forum is unique and gives opportunities for both the operato rs and the consumers to interact. According to him, NCC deserves commendation on such excellent initiative and such parliament should be encouraged not only in the telecom sector but in the other sectors. "In that parliament I was personally put on a hot seat and I know about two or three people who even before the end of the session their complaints solved."

An official of the NCC when contacted spoke on condition of anonymity; "The problem with Nigerians is impatience. The GSM is a new baby, it requires time to grow but what people are expecting is to have the same service as in the mature markets like in the developed countries." "We are trying; we are young but still doing better then those countries who have longer use of GSM service. And our international call rates are cheaper than many of such countries who have been in the system for over en years", he added.

Daily Trust.
Richard Akindele
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