N1.17bn Fines: GSM Operators Withhold N200m Penalties, Ghana Fines MTN, Others

 

Indications emerged last night that MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat, operators of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks in Nigeria have paid the N1.17 billion fines imposed on them by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for poor quality of service (QoS), however, they did not pay the additional N200m penalties.
Sources said Airtel, MTN, Glo, and Etisalat only paid N270m, N360m, N180 and N360m respectively into the accounts of the Commission leaving out the daily N2.5m fines which reached N200m as at Thursday June 14 when the matter was resolved as part of the understanding with the regulator to resolve the issue of the QoS fines which had overheated the telecom industry for nearly a month.
The chief executives of the four mobile operators had last week Thursday made submissions to the regulator and agreed to pay the fines to NCC. This week engineers from both sides are meeting to put together new benchmarks for key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from where the sanctions were imposed.
Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs of NCC who was attending a workshop in Lagos in a telephone interview with LEADERSHIP when contacted, said he was yet to get confirmation from the Director of Finance at NCC to know whether all the operators have paid and what amount they paid into the Commission’s accounts.