Telecom Firms Face N12.4bn Penalty Over Poor Service Quality

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has begun enforcement actions that could see mobile network operators (MNOs) face cumulative penalties estimated at N12.4 billion over widespread breaches of Quality of Service (QoS) standards.

The Commission had earlier taken enforcement action in October when Globacom, Airtel and IHS Towers were fined a combined N45 million for specific infractions.

However, broader compliance audits conducted subsequently revealed deeper and more systemic violations across the industry, pushing potential regulatory liabilities to an estimated N12.4 billion.

In a renewed move, the NCC has issued pre-enforcement notices to the affected operators, while sanctions are progressing through established regulatory processes. Officials described the action as one of the most assertive crackdowns on service quality in recent years.

The Commission also disclosed that it has begun updating its Enforcement Processes Regulations to ensure that sanctions and penalties continue to achieve their intended deterrent effect.

According to the NCC, the ongoing review will introduce additional communications-related offences not previously covered under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 and its subsidiary regulations.

The tougher regulatory stance, the Commission explained, is anchored on the revised Quality of Service Regulations issued in July 2024. These regulations expanded performance obligations to cover a wider range of infrastructure players, including colocation providers, while significantly raising penalty thresholds for non-compliance.

Following a transition period that ran throughout 2025, the Commission fixed September 2025 as the deadline for full compliance, paving the way for stricter enforcement from the last quarter of the year.

As part of efforts to strengthen consumer protection amid persistent complaints of poor network quality, unexpected data depletion, and failed airtime and data transactions, the NCC conducted a comprehensive audit of 965 Base Transceiver Station (BTS) sites in the Federal Capital Territory during the fourth quarter of 2025. The audit uncovered 5,557 infrastructure infractions, ranging from power and cooling failures to security lapses.

The Commission said regulatory intervention led to the remediation of 81 per cent of the identified issues by December 31, 2025.

While noting that Nigeria’s telecommunications industry attracted over $1 billion in fresh capital in 2025, with operators deploying more than 2,850 new and upgraded network sites nationwide, the regulator stressed that increased investment would not excuse substandard service delivery.

It emphasised that capital expenditure must translate into measurable improvements in consumers’ Quality of Experience, not mere promises.

In a related development, the NCC highlighted spectrum management as a critical enforcement tool.

Following several approved spectrum trades and reassignments since September 2025, the Commission reallocated about 50 MHz of idle spectrum to accelerate network deployment.

One such intervention, the regulator noted, improved Globacom’s average 4G download speeds from about 9.5 Mbps to 15 Mbps within a few months.

The NCC added that it was finalising Nigeria’s first structured Spectrum Roadmap (2025–2030), expected to be released in March 2026, alongside revised enforcement regulations slated for gazetting later in the year.