NCC to commence 100% enforcement of Quality of Service guidelines by September

●Targets 50% increase in subscriber satisfaction by December

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it would commence 100% enforcement of the revised Quality of Service (QoS) guidelines by September this year.

The Commission also said it was targeting a 50% increase in consumer satisfaction by December.

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The Director, Technical Standards & Network Integrity at the commission, Engr. Edoyemi Ogoh, made the disclosure at a two-day upskilling on trends in telecom industry for media executives held recently in Lagos.

According to him, the commission was driven by the recognition that each of the telecoms stakeholders had different expectations and for the consumer it was improved quality of Experience (QoE).

“Our strategic focus is driven by the recognition that each of our stakeholders maintains a unique perspective and have different expectations of the Commission,” he said.

Ogoh explained that QoS focussed on the technical performance of the network, while QoE emphasized the overall experience from the user’s perspective, noting that transitioning from QoS to QoE was essential to meet the evolving expectations of users in the digital age.

He added that “This shift incentivizes Service Providers to not only provide reliable services but also ensure high satisfaction and engagement.”

Differentiating between QoS and QoE, Ogoh, explained that while QoS primarily focused on network infrastructure and aimed to optimize technical parameters to provide an efficient and reliable data transmission environment, QoE shifted the focus from just technical metrics to include the end user’s experience with telecoms services.

He pointed out that the transition from QoS to QoE became necessary because today’s telecoms users “expect seamless, high-quality experiences from their telecommunications services,” due to the proliferation of high-bandwidth applications like streaming, online gaming, and video conferencing, users demand consistent and superior performance, adding that users were more informed and less tolerant of poor service quality, leading to higher expectations for reliability and satisfaction

Some of the benefits of focusing on QoE according to him, included improved consumer satisfaction and protection, enhanced regulatory credibility and trust, holistic evaluation of service providers, encouragement of Innovation and quality improvements, as well as alignment with global standards and best practices.

It would be recalled that the new EVC/CEO of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, on assuming office promised to drive QoE, right from the point of how “consumers find and select telecoms services.”

He had said he would be leveraging data to be able to empower consumers to make the right choice, so that “we can move away from the world where we have multiple SIM devices to only having one SIM card and one device.”