NCC orders telecoms to alert customers of major outages

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has directed telecom operators to inform consumers of major service outages through media channels, including the cause, affected areas, and estimated downtime.

The NCC gave the directive in a statement on Sunday signed by Acting Head, Public Affairs, Mrs. Nnenna Ukoha.

It also mandated that customers must be notified at least a week ahead of any planned service disruptions.

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The order applies to mobile network operators, internet service providers, and other last-mile providers.

According to the statement, operators are now required to offer appropriate compensation, such as validity extensions, if an outage lasts more than 24 hours, in line with the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations.

The statement read, “It identifies three types of major outages to include: Any network operational condition such as fibre cut due to construction/access issues/theft & vandalism and force majeure that impacts five per cent or more of the affected operator’s subscriber base or five or more Local Government Areas (LGAs); having an occasion of unplanned outage of, or complete isolation of network resources in 100 or more sites or five per cent of the total number of sites (whichever is less) or 1 cluster that lasts for 30 minutes or more; and lastly, any form of outage that can degrade network quality in the top 10 states based on traffic volume as specified by the Commission from time to time.

“In furtherance of this, the Commission has further directed that all Major Outages are to be reported by operators through the Commission’s Major Outage Reporting Portal, which is accessible to the public through the Commission’s website, www.ncc.gov.ng. The portal additionally discloses the identity of the culprit responsible for the disruption.”

NCC’s Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Engr. Edoyemi Ogor, said the portal has been tested for months and aligns with efforts to improve transparency and hold saboteurs accountable.

“The Commission has trialled the reporting process and portal with operators for some months now before issuing the directive.

“By providing consumers and stakeholders in the telecommunications industry with timely and transparent information on network outages, we are entrenching a culture of accountability and transparency. This approach also ensures that culprits are held responsible for sabotage to telecommunications infrastructure.

“This also aligns with our broader commitment to the effective implementation of the Executive Order signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which designates telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII). It reinforces the need to safeguard these assets, given their centrality to national security, economic stability, and the everyday lives of Nigerians,” Ogor said.