Thursday, April 8, 2010

NCA commits to mobile number portability

The National Communication Authority (NCA) is in the process of deploying mobile number portability system, a facility that will allow for consumers freedom of choice, says Kofi Totobi Quakyi, board chairman.

The right of movement, he said, will hopefully compel networks to enhance their level of service or lose the “consumer-cedi-vote” as they move to other networks.

“Consumers have a right to demand and expect value for money,” Mr. Quakyi said at the inauguration of the industry forum in Accra. The inauguration of the Forum, which is to serve as a platform to bring telecom operators together to discuss matters of common interest to the industry took place in the absence of the CEO’s of the telecom operators.

He said the NCA is counting on the introduction of the mobile number portability system to bring intense competition into the telecom sector and put operators on their toes.

The number portability system allows telephone users, particularly mobile phone users, to change service providers while retaining the subscribers existing number.

He said the Authority is excited by the high penetration rate in the telephony sector and will now demand from operators a commitment to provide customers a consistently high quality of service.

Mr. Quakyi said the high growth and associated high penetration rate in the telephony sector has brought in its trail consumer dissatisfaction due to poor quality of service provided.

“To an extent, consumers may be right in thinking that they are paying a penalty for being subscribers.

“The general notion is that the rapid expansion that took place has been at the expense of quality service delivery.

“This should not be the case since the two are not mutually exclusive. The situation has caught up with us and we will face squarely our responsibility to lead from the front in seeking corrective measures and improvement,” he said.

There is currently a wave of complaints from mobile phone subscribers resulting from continued call-drops, cross-calls, speech mutation, and wrong voice prompts among others; and the NCA has been criticised for being passive with the implementation of the mobile number portability system to deepen competition in the telecom sector and provide consumers freedom of choice.

The authority has set the beginning of 2012 as the start date for the practical implementation of the number portability after satisfying itself with the pretesting of the system.

Mr. Quakyi said the NCA has over the years helped to make the telecom industry attractive to foreign investors, which has culminated in the high growth, high penetration rate and increased attractiveness of the sector to foreign participation.

He said the NCA is not all about issuing licences and allocating frequencies and would do well to strike a balance between ensuring growth and development of the telecom industry and at the same time addressing public concerns over quality of service.

The Minister for Communication, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, said his Ministry will continue to encourage openness in the management of the communications sector.

He said consumers of communications services are major stakeholders of the industry and efforts must be made at all times to respond to their needs.

The Minister advised both consumers and service providers to consider themselves as major partners in the development of the industry and engage each other in a progressive manner to promote harmony and continuing healthy development of the sector.

He said the increasing complaints about deteriorating quality of services by operators must push the NCA to immediately publish quality of service standards and obligations of the service providers for public consumption.

“The publications must also include monthly performance reports of the operators.”

Source:B&FT

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