The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued directives to telecommunications operators to take immediate steps whenever major network outages occur.
The directive is published in the NCC’s Quality of Service Business Rules released in August.
Under the rules, telecom operators are required to immediately report all major network outages to the Commission once they occur for proper record and monitoring.
The operators must, in addition, issue public notices on the outage through conventional and alternative media platforms.
Aside these, the NCC further requires the operators to notify affected consumers directly through electronic channels, including SMS, MMS and social media platforms.
The Commission also outlined the obligations for telecom operators after their services have been restored.
According to the NCC, “operators must submit a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to the Commission within 48 hours of restoring services.
“The RCA must detail the cause or causes of the outage, affected areas, actions taken to restore services and measures put in place to prevent a recurrence”.
The regulator also introduced a compensation framework for prolonged network outages.
It stated that where an outage lasts for more than 24 hours, the affected telecom operator must provide proportional compensation in accordance with the Consumer Code of Practice.
The Commission added that any outage exceeding 12 hours within a day would be treated as a full day for compensation purposes.
However, the NCC noted that force majeure events may be exempt from compensation, where they were properly documented and reported.
On post-restoration obligations, the NCC stated: “Upon restoration of services, Licensees shall submit a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to the Commission within forty-eight (48) hours, detailing the cause of the outage, affected areas, actions taken to restore service and measures implemented to prevent recurrence”.
On compensation, the Commission stated that “outages exceeding 24 hours would attract proportional compensation, while any outage lasting more than 12 hours within a day would be deemed a full day for compensation purposes”.
