Telecoms faulted on quality
Feb 09, 2012
Driven by intense competition, quality of service by telecom companies has dropped, with customers complaining of undue charges and outright fraud in some instances, a new report shows.
By Samuel Sanya
Driven by intense competition, quality of service by telecom companies has dropped, with customers complaining of undue charges and outright fraud in some instances, a new report shows.
Yakubu Makawa, a subscriber to both Warid and MTN, says despite paying sh15,000 for free network calls, his account is still deducted after each call. He adds that an additional sh1,300 was being deducted until he complained.
Some subscribers say they were charged for calling customer care numbers. Vincent Mwijukye was charged for a package he had never subscribed to.
“These complaints comprise misleading advertisements that are dubious, untruth and deceitful for instance those promising incentives such as free calls, free SMS (text messages) and extra credit,” reads an excerpt from the recent
Uganda Communications Commission report, the telecoms regulator.
The report shows that customers often complain of unsolicited text messages, nonchalant attitudes of call agents and related service issues, health implications of proximity to masts, undelivered text messages, erratic Internet services and inability to recharge credit.
In credit to the telecoms, the report shows that 64% of the complaints are resolved.
Reviewing the performance of the telecoms between October and December last year, the regulator found that all of them were performing below the required standard of 2% for dropped calls. Dropped calls are those terminated due to network failure other than the calling parties.
Some telecoms were dropping as many as 15.5% of over two million calls, translating into over 310,000 dropped calls.
The number of blocked calls, where connection cannot be established despite network connectivity, was as high as 18.7% for UTL, 6.5% for Warid, 5.4% for Airtel, 4.3% for Orange and 4.2% for MTN.
Nyombi Thembo, the state minister for ICT, has repeatedly warned telecoms to meet quality standards or lose their licenses, as the country moves to register all SIM cards in March.