BY Prince Osuagwu, Babajide Komolafe & Juliet Ebirim

Etisalat Nigeria, yesterday, revealed the strategies which helped it escape the hammers of the telecom industry umpire, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.

This is also as the company announced exclusively to Vanguard that its subscriber base has now hit 19 million.

The regulator, a fortnight ago, slammed a N647.5 million fine on three of the four active telecommunications operators in the country over provision of poor quality of service.

It was only Etisalat that escaped that sanction.

The Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Matthew Willsher, disclosed that immediately after the meeting between NCC and the operators, where service thresholds for the industry were set, Etisalat took the pains to set standards that ensure its base stations operated 99 percent of the time on 24 hours basis.

Willsher spoke during a courtesy visit to Vanguard. He said his company discovered that anything less than that threshold will result to service infractions, which would have pitched it against the regulator.

He said: “What makes the difference in our network quality and the ability to meet the standards expected of us is that the people in the company are continually committed to making sure that we plan well.

“We make sure that any time a base station has to be on air, it is. Our standards are that our base stations are up 99 percent of the time, 24 hours a day and seven days a week.”