Globacom will be sanctioned – NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has commenced enforcement action on Globacom for not adhering to the 10 per cent threshold for interconnect traffic by telecom companies.

This is contained in the organisation’s 2016 Q1 Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Report made available to the News Agency of Nigeria.

It said that the NCC monitored compliance of the telecommunication company with regards to the commission’s directive on routing of a minimum of 10 per cent of interconnect traffic through interconnect exchange licensees.

The report said that pursuant to Section 53 (1) of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, NCC issued a direction in April 2009.

According to the report, the directive mandated all operators to route a minimum of 10 per cent of their inter-operator traffic through licensed Interconnect Exchange Operators in locations where they have point of presence (POP) across the country.

“This direction is aimed at providing interconnection of traffic across the networks.

“It will encourage routing of traffic through interconnect exchange operators, which is necessary to reduce network congestion and mitigate the quality of service challenges,” it said.

The report further said the directive was consistent with the mandate of the commission to monitor and ensure that operators complied with extant rules, regulations, directions and guidelines.

It said that the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement department carried out a compliance monitoring check to confirm the level of compliance to the directive.

“Our monitoring process involved collecting traffic data for the period of December 2015 and January 2016 (inbound and outbound) from the network operators, as well as from the major interconnects exchange houses.

“Having reviewed the data, it was revealed that all the mobile network operators, except Globacom complied with the 10 per cent minimum threshold of interconnect traffic to be routed through the interconnect exchange operators.

“Consequently, the commission has commenced the necessary enforcement action for this breach,” the report said.

It said that the telecommunications umpire’s activities were consistent with Section 89 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.

The report added that the section mandated NCC to ”monitor all significant matters relating to the performance of all licensed telecom service providers and publish annual reports at the end of each financial year.’’

It also said that NCC had developed Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement strategies to ensure fair competition, ethical market conduct and optimal quality service in the telecommunications industry.

(NAN)