NCC Directs Telecom Operators to Alert Customers on Major Service Outages
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has mandated all telecom service providers to inform their customers of major service outages, including the cause, affected areas, and estimated downtime, through appropriate media channels.
This directive, announced in a statement on Sunday and signed by the Acting Head of Public Affairs, Mrs. Nnenna Ukoha, applies to mobile network operators, internet service providers, and other last-mile service providers.
According to the Commission, customers must be notified at least one week in advance of any planned service disruptions. The new rule also requires operators to offer compensation, such as validity extensions, for outages lasting over 24 hours in line with the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations.
The NCC outlined three categories of major outages that must be reported:
Network issues caused by fibre cuts due to construction, access problems, theft, or vandalism.
Force majeure events that affect at least five percent of the operator’s subscriber base or five or more Local Government Areas (LGAs), or result in the unplanned outage or isolation of 100 or more network sites (or five percent of total sites, whichever is lower), or any outage cluster lasting 30 minutes or more.
Any disruption that significantly degrades service quality in the top 10 states by traffic volume.
Furthermore, the NCC directed that all major outages be reported on the Commission’s Major Outage Reporting Portal, which is publicly accessible through www.ncc.gov.ng. The portal also discloses the identity of the party responsible for each disruption.
