By Shina Badaru

Abuja. September 17, 2008. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has lifted a ban on sales promotion imposed on two mobile operators, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited and Zain Nigeria, in a regulatory review that may impact the imminent launch of commercial service by telecoms market newest entrant, Etisalat Nigeria of UAE.

The regulator clamped down on the companies following pervasive network congestion and dropped calls and other quality of service issues faced by subscribers on their networks and growing public outrage. As part of the punitive action, both operators were also directed by NCC to pay compensation in form of airtime to their subscribers.

Technology Times checks today reveal exclusively that the lifting of the ban on the two mobile operators that became official last week has been communicated to the two companies.
It is not unconnected with the outcome of stiff lobby to ensure that that the companies can undertake promotional activities that will enable them rev up uptake of their service bouquets, particularly in the last quarter of the year.

Industry analysts view the development as a major blow to Etisalat Nigeria that recently flagged off a pre-launch campaign tagged “U Choose” under which subscribers on existing mobile GSM and CDMA networks can freely reserve a number of their choice. They can then claim the reserved number after 45 days after the commercial rollout of Etisalat’s service into the telecoms market.

In a phone interview with Technology Times today, NCC spokesperson, Reuben Muoka denies the report saying “it cannot be true.” He doubts that the regulator has lifted the ban on promotions imposed on the mobile operators.

However, both companies, MTN Nigeria and Zain Nigeria say they have received formal notification of the regulatory review of the promo ban that allows them to commence activities that will lead to uptake of their service by new subscribers.

Spokesperson, MTN Nigeria, Funmi Omogbenigun also confirmed on phone today to Technology Times thus: “Yes. We have received the letter from NCC. They have lifted the ban on promos.”

Spokesman, Zain Nigeria, Emeka Oparah also says the operator has been formally notified by NCC of the lifting on the ban on promotional activities by Zain.

Industry sources confirm that the lifting of the ban comes with some conditions to the operators, chief among them being that they must clear and obtain NCC’s permission for future promotional campaigns before they can be made public.

Additionally, they must also submit reports of the anticipated impact of planned promotional campaign while “they must sign undertakings that NCC is at liberty to ban them from future promos for upward of between six months and one year if the impact of their promo result in quality of service issues”, says the source.

NCC had in November also made good its threat to sanction GSM operators over quality of service when it ordered the big three: MTN Nigeria, Glo Mobile and Celtel Nigeria, to start paying a minimum of N50 monthly compensation to their subscribers from January.

This came after the duo of MTN Nigeria and Celtel lost a legal battle to stop the regulator’s plan to make them pay compensations ranging between N50 and N75 monthly to subscribers over flagging quality of service.

Hitherto, NCC had in February imposed a blanket ban on sales promotion by all the four GSM operators citing results of quality of service (QoS) tests carried out across the sector.

With that directive, the regulator says that all GSM operators have fallen below the QoS threshold set for all players including Glo mobile which was the sole player allowed to undertake an ongoing promotion that kicked off in the last quarter of last year.

Head of Public Affairs, NCC, Dave Imoko had then said that new GSM QoS testing equipment just acquired at the time by the regulator reveals that all mobile GSM networks failed to meet the minimum threshold set by NCC when he cited that they “were grossly in default on several key performance indicators for ascertaining quality of service.”

According to NCC, following the new discovery, a blanket was then imposed barring GSM networks from sales promotions that may add more subscribers to their congested networks.

“This directive affects ongoing promotions, or any new promotions yet to be embarked upon by any of the operators as the results of the tests carried out in some parts of the country has been very unsatisfactory” says the regulator.

NCC finds “the level of performance of the GSM networks in some parts of the country where tests were already completed were poor and unacceptable. All the major GSM operators were grossly in default on several key performance indicators for ascertaining quality of service.”

GSM operators were tested based on key parameters of Traffic Channel Congestion, Call Completion Rates, Call Setup Success rates, Call Drop Rates, Percentage of Failed Calls, Call Setup Time, Speech Quality Index and Handover Success Rates, he adds.

NCC’s technical team carried out QoS tests in Kano, Bauchi and Kaduna States. During the tests in Bauchi State, some members of the Senate Committee on Communications witnessed the test being carried out by a technical team of the NCC, says Imoko.

Meanwhile, Glo Mobile, the mobile business unit of Globacom was let off the ban list when indications emerged that the operator was able to attain service quality levels set by the regulator.