In a bid to enhance transparency and improve consumer protection, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued a directive mandating all telecom service providers to notify consumers about major service outages on their networks.
The Commission, in a release signed by its Acting Head of Public Affairs, Mrs. Nnenna Ukoha, stated that the directive is aimed at promoting accountability, ensuring timely resolution of outages, and keeping consumers adequately informed.
According to the NCC, the new regulation titled “Directive on Reportage of Major Network Outages by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs)” required Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Internet Service Providers, and other last-mile service providers to inform the public about any service disruption stating the cause, affected areas, and estimated restoration time. In the case of planned outages, consumers must be notified at least one week in advance.
In addition to consumer notification, the directive mandated service providers to offer proportional compensation, such as validity extensions, in line with the provisions of the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations, where major network outages persist beyond 24 hours.
The NCC outlined three key scenarios that constituted major outages:
1. Incidents affecting 5% or more of an operator’s subscriber base or five or more Local Government Areas (LGAs);
2. Unplanned outages involving 100 or more sites, or 5% of total sites, lasting 30 minutes or longer;
3. Any outage that degrades network quality in the top 10 states by traffic volume, as determined by the Commission.
To ensure compliance and transparency, the Commission has also launched a Major Outage Reporting Portal, accessible via its official website (www.ncc.gov.ng). The portal allowed the public to view outage reports and includes the identity of any party responsible for the disruption.
Commenting on the initiative, Engr. Edoyemi Ogor, Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity at the NCC, said the reporting process and portal had been trialled with operators for several months before formal rollout.
“By providing consumers and stakeholders with timely and transparent information on network outages, we are entrenching a culture of accountability. This also ensures that culprits of sabotage are held responsible,” Ogor stated.
He added that the move aligned with the Executive Order signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which designated telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII), highlighting their importance to national security, economic stability, and daily life in Nigeria.
