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Compensate customers for poor services — NCR urges telcos

 Paarock Vanpercy — Director-General, NCAThe Network of Communications Reporters (NCR) has called on the National Communication Authority (NCA) to make telcos compensate their customers directly for their poor services rendered to them instead of the usual NCA fines, which do not benefit the affected customers directly.

The call, contained in a statement issued in Accra and jointly signed by Dean of NCR, Mr Charles Benoni Okine and Liaison Officer, Mr Samuel Dowuona, comes in the wake of the recent rampant service interruptions on all the six networks as the NCA’s own monthly quality of service (QoS) reports show.

“We believe that NCA can device a mechanism of supervising direct compensation to customers in times of service interruptions instead of waiting till the end of a particular period to fine the respective telcos and use the money for its owns administrative cost,” the statement said.

It noted that while each of the telcos continue to make empty boasts of providing “the best quality of service” than their competitors, social media networks and radio stations continue to be inundated with messages from consumers who suffer poor quality service from each telco and how it was affecting their businesses, relationships and their daily lives in general.

Indeed, some consumers have opened dedicated pages on various social media networks just to register their anger and frustration about the poor quality of telecom services which is far cry from the empty promises the telcos make.

“It is time for the NCA to step up to the plate and stop the empty boasts by telcos and also be proactive about dealing with problems facing consumers instead of waiting for consumers to go make reports on its website or call its office lines and make complaints,” he said.

“A challenge like "you have dialed a wrong number" when in fact you are dialing a number saved in your phone book with a name, and you have been calling that number for years - another challenge like calling a phone number listed in your phone book with a name, and the call going to another person”.

“We therefore call on the respective government agencies to expedite action on issuing permits to the telcos to expand infrastructure – we also call on the Energy Commission to crack the whip on power suppliers when their failures affect communication service interruption,” the statement.

NCR also endorses the recent measures  put in place by the present Minister, Dr Edward Omane Boamah and the National Security to deal with the problem of fibre cuts and ensuring that there is effective communication between road contractors and telcos among others.

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