The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has explained which Nigerians will qualify to receive airtime compensation for poor network service under its new consumer compensation framework.
According to the Commission, subscribers may qualify for compensation if they experienced poor network service in an affected Local Government Area (LGA) and also carried out at least one revenue-generating activity during the affected period.
The NCC said the qualifying activities include a billed call, SMS, or data session made while the network issue lasted.
The Commission also confirmed that the compensation will cover voice, SMS, and data service failures.
In a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) post shared on its official X account, the telecom regulator explained that the compensation will not be paid in cash but in airtime credits directly to affected subscribers.
Speaking on the decision, the NCC said the move was guided by existing telecom regulations used to sanction service providers that fail to meet Quality of Service (QoS) targets.
“Whatever we do is guided by the regulations we have in force,” the Commission explained.
According to the NCC, telecom operators that fail service quality assessments in designated reporting areas are liable to sanctions.
“Those sanctions state that if you fail a target in a particular reporting area, you are required to pay ₦5 million per KPI, per reporting area,” the Commission said.
The regulator explained that a reporting area refers to locations across the country where network service quality assessments are conducted.
The NCC noted that such penalties are traditionally paid directly to the government. However, the Commission said it decided to redirect the benefit to subscribers because consumers are the ones directly affected by poor service delivery.
“But in terms of quality of service, because we know that it is the subscribers that actually experience and face these quality of service issues, we deemed it fit to compensate them directly and make sure that those funds are returned to them,” the Commission added.
The development means affected subscribers on networks such as MTN, Airtel, Glo, and T2 (formerly 9mobile) could receive airtime compensation whenever operators fail to meet approved service quality standards in specific locations.
