NCC Reels Out New Guidelines For MTN, Airtel, Glo, and Others Regarding "Loss of Phone Lines"

To enhance consumer relations and experiences, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued new recommendations to telecommunications providers in Nigeria. The telecom regulator claimed that the new rules comply with Section 57 of the NCC Act, which permits input from stakeholders.

The new guidelines stipulate the minimum quality and standards of service associated with measurements and critical performance indicators for measuring the quality of service.

According to the NCC paper, Nigeria's telecom firms were required to attend to consumers within 30 minutes of their arrival at any of their service centers. According to NCC, there is a 30-minute wait to be physically attended to by relevant staff at customer care centers. The agreement states that the licensee must include tools for measuring waiting times beginning with the time of arrival at the location.

"Lines should not repeat more than three times; the maximum number of rings before an IVR machine or a live agent answers a call should not be more than five; and where a customer decides to speak to a live agent, the maximum duration allowed on the queue/IVR should be 5 minutes before answer," NCC said.

“In exceptional cases where a live agent may be unavailable within five minutes to answer the call, a customer should be given the option to hang up to be called back within a maximum time of 30 minutes. “Customer care lines that can be accessed through 21 free access numbers and if 1 number then it should accommodate multiple other network calls simultaneously.” “Subscribers may lose their numbers within a year if they do not use it”. “A subscriber 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.”

“RGE regards deduction of line rental charge. The Commission said subscribers must provide proof of a good reason for the absence is at liberty to request line parking.”

Telcos are required by NCC to provide the consumer or call originator a brief beep for two minutes and 30 seconds to end an ongoing call. "Low credit announcement to be played while the call originated in a situation where the call cannot last up to 30 secs," according to NCC.

According to the commission, the extensions surreptitiously track online browser activities and steal users' data.

SOURCE: LEGIT.NG