Telcos, VAS operators commended for braving ‘dumsor storm’
The Network of Communication Reporters (NCR) has lauded the telecom operators and their value added service (VAS) partners for surviving the power crisis and sustaining appreciable quality of service levels to their customers.
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“We also commend them for maintaining their staff members in spite of the growing cost of operations which is eating deep into their profits,” a release said.
The release from the NCR, jointly signed by the Dean, Mr Charles Benoni Okine, and the Liaison Officer, Mr Samuel Dowuona, noted that in the past three years, the National Communications Authority (NCA) quality of service (QoS) reports had revealed that the telcos had been recording lesser breaches in the QoS despite the erratic power supply “and this is worth commending in the phase of the cost implications”.
"It is also worthy to note that none of the telcos have undertaken any massive worker lay offs and NCR checks reveal no telco has any immediate plans to lay off workers due to the ongoing power crisis popularly known as dumsor," the release said.
NCR noted that some telcos had reported increased expenses in 2014 alone as a result of the power crisis, and that could have warranted laying off of workers and or increases in tariffs to reduce cost, but the telcos have not done any of that yet.
"While we commend the telcos, we will also like to acknowledge the tenacity of the young mobile VAS providers, some of which reported spending not less than GH¢10,000 every month on fuel to run generators to sustain their services to Ghanaians," the release said.
Equipment vendors and technology partners of the telcos also reported delays in installing equipment due to dumsor, but they had to work extra hours just to meet targets and sustain services to Ghanaians.
NCR said while telcos were held to strict key performance indicators and, therefore, fined heavily when they missed their targets, the authorities would also have to double their efforts to end the energy crisis.
