The Nigerian Communications Commission has mandated service providers to inform consumers of major service outages on their networks through media channels.

NCC said this in a statement on Sunday. Its directive required operators to provide details on the cause of the outage, affected areas, and estimated downtime.

NCC said the move aimed to enhance transparency and accountability in the industry, ensuring that consumers are kept informed about service disruptions that may affect their communication needs.

“By providing timely updates, operators can help manage consumer expectations and minimise the impact of outages on their daily activities,” it said.

The NCC also mandated that customers must be notified at least a week ahead of any planned service disruptions. It said the order applied to mobile network operators, internet service providers, and other last-mile providers.

According to the statement, operators are now required to offer appropriate compensation, such as validity extensions, if an outage lasts more than 24 hours, in line with the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations.

NCC said, “We identify three types of major outages to include any network operational condition such as fibre cut due to construction or access issues or theft and vandalism that impact five per cent or more of the affected operator’s subscriber base or five or more local government areas (LGAs).

“Also, having an occasion of unplanned outage of or complete isolation of network resources in 100 or more sites or five per cent of the total number of sites (whichever is less) or one cluster that lasts for 30 minutes or more.

“Lastly, any form of outage that can degrade network quality in the top 10 states based on traffic volume as specified by the Commission from time to time.”

Commenting on the directive, the director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Edoyemi Ogor, said NCC had trialled the reporting process and portal with operators for some months before issuing the directive.

Mr Ogor said that providing consumers and stakeholders in the telecoms industry with timely and transparent information on network outages could entrench a culture of accountability and transparency.

“This approach also ensures that culprits are held responsible for sabotage to telecommunications infrastructure.

“It also aligns with our broader commitment to the effective implementation of the Executive Order signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which designates telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII).

“It reinforces the need to safeguard these assets, given their centrality to national security, economic stability, and the everyday lives of Nigerians,” Mr Ogor explained.

(NAN)