The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced that telecommunications companies (Telcos) are authorized to deactivate inactive subscribers from their networks after six months of inactivity.
This is a key provision outlined in the newly approved guidelines for Telcos by the NCC, which will be implemented soon.
The new NCC guidelines, titled, ‘Draft Quality of Service Business Rules’, stipulate the minimum quality and standards of service, associated measurements, and key performance indicators for measuring the quality of service.
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Per the guidelines, if a subscriber remains inactive for an additional six months, there is a possibility of losing their number, unless there is a network-related issue preventing the activation of the Registered Glove Enclave (RGE).
“A subscriber’s line may be deactivated if it has not been used, within six months, for a Revenue Generating Event (RGE), and if the situation persists for another six months, the subscriber may lose their number, except for a network-related fault inhibiting an RGE,” the guidelines stipulated.
Recycling of inactive phone numbers has remained a big subject in Nigeria, following the arrest of one Anthony Okolie, a Delta State-based trader, by the Department of State Services (DSS), for using a SIM previously owned by Hanan Buhari, the president’s daughter.
Based on the new guidelines, the NCC said that telcos have the authority to reassign dormant SIM cards without recourse to the previous owners, as long as the inactivity falls within the stipulated period of six months.
For subscribers who wish to recover their lines after it might have been recycled, the commission said they must provide “proof of good reason for absence and are at liberty to request for line parking.”
In the guidelines, the NCC announced other regulations, including alert etiquette.
The commission stated that during credit alert notifications while on a call, telecommunications companies (telcos) should provide “a single short-beep” to the call initiator two minutes before the call is set to end, and another beep at 30 seconds before termination.
The NCC also said that if a call is unable to last for up to 30 seconds, a low credit announcement should be played when the call is initiated.
These new guidelines have been introduced per Section 57 of the NCC Act, allowing stakeholders to provide their input on the policy.
Additionally, the NCC directed in the guidelines, that telcos ensure that customers are attended to within 30 minutes upon their arrival at any of the telcos’ service centers nationwide.
“For customer care centers, waiting time to be physically attended to by relevant staff at customer care centers is 30 minutes. The licensee shall provide means of measuring the waiting time, starting from the time of arrival at the premises,” the guideline said.
The commission also said telcos must ensure that customers are hastily attended to when they call a helpline or visit their providers’ offices.
“Lines should not be more than three times; maximum number of rings before a call is answered by either an IVR machine or a live agent should not be more than five; and where a customer decides to speak to a live agent, the maximum duration allowable on the queue/IVR should be five minutes before answer,” the NCC said.
The regulator added: “In exceptional cases where a live agent may be unavailable within five minutes to answer the call, a customer should be given an option to hang up to be called back within a maximum time of 30 minutes. Customer care lines that can be accessible through 21 free access numbers and if one number, then it should accommodate multiple other network calls at the same time.”