Three of the five telecom companies (telcos) which were slapped with a penalty of GH�1.2 million by National Communications Authority (NCA), for poor quality services have paid a total of GH�300,000.
They are tiGO, MTN and Airtel. The two other companies, Vodafone and Expresso are yet to pay the penalties imposed on them
for poor services.
The step taken by the three companies vindicates the action of the NCA which has vowed to sanction poor quality of service from the telecom companies. The telecom companies claim to have paid the fine under duress and have, therefore, challenged the NCA over its measurement methodology.
A report revealed that, tiGO, one of the three which was billed with GH�100,000 is the only one among the three to have paid in full while MTN, the market leader by subscription has settled only GH�50,000 out of the a penalty of GhC300,000.
Although the NCA boss, Mr Paarock VanPercy, confirmed the compliance of the telecom companies in terms of payment of the penalties slapped on them, he fell short of mentioning the exact amounts paid.
But the Daily Graphic can further confirm that the Indian-owned Airtel has also paid GH�150,000 out of the GH�350,000 it was slapped with. Vodafone Ghana which owes GH�150,000 has paid nothing as of the end of last month while Expresso which was also slapped with GH�350,000 penalty fine, is also yet to pay.
But Mr Vanpercy told the Daily Graphic that; �the arguments raised by the telecom companies regarding the penalties are just a face-saving measure�. He said the NCA and the telecom companies have always met on the quality of service performance and measured the results thereafter.
�In some cases, I can tell you that the equipment they bring to double check the authenticity of what ours have indicated show worse performance than ours and that tells you we are not in any way attempting to be mischievous�, he said.
Mr Vanpercy further said the rationale for the exercise is not intended to be punitive but to ensure that the telecom companies go strictly by the demands of the licenses that had been issued them to commence business.
The key performance indicators used in measuring the attainment of service quality were Call Setup Time; Call Congestion Rate and Call Drop Rate. Apart from MTN, none of the remaining four is prepared to officially comment on the issue.
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