By Tony Edike
ENUGU- STAKEHOLDERS in the telecommunication industry have lamented the poor quality of services being provided by operators of mobile phone companies in the South East zone of the country.

The  daunting challenges impeding the performance of the GSM operators also came to the fore at a forum organized by the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC) in Enugu with the regulatory body reiterating its determination to ensure that subscribers get quality services.

At the forum, the stakeholders  took the service providers, especially MTN, to task over sundry hiccups in their service lines which make consumers feel cheated but  representatives of the mobile phone companies told tales of woe over harsh operating environments in their respective locations.

They urged the government, community leaders and other stakeholders to help them check a growing trend of alleged inordinate demands from the leaders and youth of communities as this threatening on-going expansion programmes aimed at reaching rural communities in the area.

Some of the stakeholders were of the view that the service providers have not met their expectation for stable services, pointing out that the issues relating to tariffs and obvious lapses and suspected attempts to fleece the consumers exemplified in certain promotional programmes of some of the providers had remained unresolved.

In her speech, NCC’s director of Policy, Competition and Economy Analysis, Mrs. Loila Emakpore, noted that though the sector has grown in leaps and bounds in the decade, “these growths have come with them, certain negative experiences and drawbacks, chief among which are degraded quality of service disaffection”.

She however acknowledged some of the difficulties being encountered by the service providers saying there were rooms for improvement.

“We at the commission are very aware of some of the major operational challenges facing the industry operatives, from the various levels of government and society generally,” she said.

According to representatives of the industry operators at the forum, including Globacom, Airtel, MTN, Etisalat, there is a growing trend whereby efforts to expand are being hanpered by frequent resistance by land owners to the siting of masts that would aid network coverage.

The NCC officials, however, agreed with the submissions by the stakeholders as Mrs Emakpore declared,
“it should be clearly stated that the network operatives have in most cases come very short of expectations in terms of network optimization as well as proper utilization of transmission facilities and other such signaling elements”.

However, the participants generally agreed at the end of the forum that the identified  shortcomings notwithstanding, there is need for the populace, especially those directly involved in engaging the operators, to co-operate with them to help them offer optimum services in the South East.