NCC Orders Telcos to Notify Public of Major Outages, Compensate Affected Subscribers

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has directed telecommunications operators to inform consumers of significant service disruptions using media platforms, while also offering proportional compensation such as extended service validity in line with the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations.

In a statement issued by Nnenna Ukoha, Acting Head of Public Affairs at the NCC, operators are expected to disclose the cause of any service outage, the affected areas, and the estimated time for restoration.

This directive is part of the Commission’s ongoing efforts to enhance service quality, improve consumer experience, and ensure transparency in the industry.

NCC’s Director of Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Edoyemi Ogor, said, “The Commission has trialled the reporting process and portal with operators for some months now before issuing the directive. By providing consumers and stakeholders in the telecommunications industry with timely and transparent information on network outages, we are entrenching a culture of accountability and transparency.”

He added, “This approach also ensures that culprits are held responsible for sabotage to telecommunications infrastructure.”

Operators are also mandated to notify consumers at least one week in advance of any planned service disruptions.

“This aligns with our broader commitment to implementing the Executive Order signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which designates telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII),” Ogor stated. “It reinforces the need to safeguard these assets, given their centrality to national security, economic stability, and the everyday lives of Nigerians.”

Mobile Network Operators, Internet Service Providers, and other last-mile service providers must offer proportional compensation for any major outage lasting more than 24 hours, in accordance with the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations.

The NCC has outlined three categories of major outages:

1. Network-related issues such as fibre cuts, access restrictions, theft, vandalism, or force majeure affecting at least five percent of an operator’s subscribers or five or more Local Government Areas (LGAs).
2. Unplanned outages or network isolation affecting 100 or more sites, or five percent of total sites—whichever is lower—or loss of one cluster for at least 30 minutes.
3. Any outage that significantly degrades network quality in the 10 states with the highest traffic volumes, as determined periodically by the Commission.

All major outages must be reported through the NCC’s Major Outage Reporting Portal, which is publicly accessible via the Commission’s website and includes details on the cause of each disruption.