Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Engr. Abraham Oshadami who disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday at the opening of a two-day upskilling programme for media practitioners organised by the NCC, said the focus of the NCC now is the quality of services consumers get from telecom services providers.
Engr. Oshadami who represented the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, said the NCC is also beaming its searchlight on infrastructure companies to ensure they meet their obligations to the mobile network operators (MNOs).
According to him, “A company builds a tower and invites MNOs to come and host their equipment on it, sometimes there is no power and when the site is down, the mobile operators lose money. So any time the site is down because of the negligence of the infrastructure company, the company will be heavily sanctioned.”
On the activities of portfolio spectrum owners, he said it is not possible for individuals to acquire spectrum just for purposes of trading with it.
He said, “We have a policy in NCC with regards to the acquisition of spectrum, that is ‘Use it or lose it’. So if you acquire a spectrum and you fail to use it, you lose it. Even if you want to sell it, you must have used it for at least one year, and even at that, you must apply to the NCC for approval.”
He said the media is very critical to economic development and the activities of the NCC. He called on media practitioners to support the Commission in its efforts to ensure a well regulated telecommunications environment in Nigeria.
In his own presentation on enhancing a Healthy competition regime in telecommunication, Director, Policy, Competition and economic analysis, Mr. Ayuba Shuaibu, said one of the Key functions of the NCC is ensuring there is a Healthy competition among telecom operators.
He said this is to ensure there is no monopoly and the consumers get the best of services.
Mr. Shuaibu who was represented by the Deputy Director, Policy, Competition and economic analysis, Mrs Freda Ruth Bevce-Bennett, noted that NCC is committed to promoting healthy competition and called on the media to help in promoting healthy competition through their articles.