NCC Admits MTS At Consumer Parliament
. GSM Interconnection Boost for Sept.
By EMMA EKE (Lagos) and ALIFA DANIEL (Abuja)
AS part of the first anniversary of the telecommunications Consumer Parliament, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has admitted MTS First Wireless Limited into the parliament, thereby ending an initial rift between the firm and one of the Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) operators at its inception.
The Thursday sitting, marking the 12th session of the forum attracted a cross section of stakeholders of the sector. The Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), the four GSM operators and other fixed network operators received a total of 200 complaints from subscribers of the various services, mostly on poor services.
Speaking during the ceremony, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, the Executive vice-Chairman of the commission, said that given the successful rolling out of its services, MTS can now take its seat at the operators' stand during each of the parliament's session.
He told The Guardian that as a result of the innovation behind the idea of having a consumer parliament, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has adapted the Consumer parliament for all the member countries internationally.
He said that despite the fact that some operators still needed to work hard to satisfy its customers, a lot has been achieved compared with what the situation was before now.
" We should not forget easily where we as a nation was coming from before the revolution in the telecommunications sector, some four yeas ago, when the country could only afford about 400,000 telephone lines, to be compared with about six million lines that the country has as at today," he said.
MTS Head, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Reuben Muoka, said that given the good will his company is enjoying so far, the future looks good for the country's aim at attaining enhance tele-density ratio.
Meanwhile, three Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) service providers are putting finishing touches to measures that will boost interconnectivity.
Indications from the NCC and the service providers confirmed that more lines have been made available across board to ensure that between the first week and second week of September, it would be easier for users of MTN, V-Mobile and Glo networks to get calls across the networks more easily.
