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House of Representatives Thursday flayed GSM service providers in the country over poor service delivery and set up a six member ad hoc committee to investigate activities of the network providers.
Moving the motion, Hon. Arole Fancy, on behalf of five others, condemned the gradual decay of services provided by the GSM service providers, noting that call drop rates of the various providers have increased substantially thereby frustrating users.
Members noted with regret that while GSM services in other African countries witnessed network expansion and efficient service delivery, users in Nigeria were not only being frustrated but it has also caused economic and social disorder.
Arole Fancy expressed worry over the exploitation of Nigerians by the GSM service providers, lamenting that when GSM came to Nigeria at the time NITEL services were in comatose and in spite of the huge profits being declared by the operators, their services have remained epileptic.
More worrisome, he said, is the inability of consumers to use their phones to contact security agents during emergency situations such as armed robbery attacks.
Contributing, Dr. Aminu Safana, explained that when in 1999, the GSM came to Nigeria, people were happy, but today, out of the four network providers, no one is working effectively, which according to him has led people to acquiring more than one handset to be able to accommodate two or more networks at a time.
He observed that in other African countries like South Africa, Ghana and Egypt, the services are efficient, insisting that the proposed public hearing on the matter was timely.
In a swift reaction to the motion, the Executive Vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission [NCC], Engr. Ernest Ndukwe said that members were right in their observations, lamenting that some of the problems were beyond the commission or even the service providers.
Ndukwe, who wason of a courtesy call on Speaker Olubunmi Etteh, disclosed that across the nation there are base stations that need power but that due to epileptic power supply, the efficiency of the GSM cannot be guaranteed.
He identified other problems facing the GSM providers as vandalization of cables and diversion of diesel supply to the base stations which according to him had drastically affected the network providers.
Mrs. Etteh however asked the NCC boss to put pressure on the network providers to improve on their services as Nigerians are worried over their poor services.