Airtel Nigeria, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, South Africa’s MTN, Abu Dhabi’s Etisalat and local operator Globacom, have paid $3.7-million fine imposed on them by the country’s telecom regulatory authority for poor quality of service.

“MTN, Globacom and Airtel paid at the close of work on Monday this week, while Etisalat paid at the close of work on Tuesday,” Nigerian Communications Commission sources who opted to remain anonymous told PTI over the phone.

The commission had penalised the four operators for poor quality of service after a key performance indicators test carried out on their networks in March and April.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Mr Rajan Swarup, confirmed to PTI that his company has paid the fine.

Last month, Nigerian Communications Commission spokesman, Mr Reuben Muoka, had said the four operators failed to meet with the minimum standard of quality of service.

The commission had arrived at the decision on testing the operators on four parameters — call set-up success rate, call completion rate, drop call rate and traffic channel congestion.

Nigeria has a population of 150 million making mobile telephony a highly profitable venture but customers often complain of poor services. Many people prefer to carry more than one phone so they could have an alternative connection when one fails.

However, the operators blame the poor quality of service on poorly developed infrastructure like electricity which, they say makes it cumbersome to deliver services to subscribers.

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