Lousy mobile providers threatened with prison time in Africa

Nigeria is following the lead of Tanzania and Zambia by enforcing jail time on substandard mobile operators. From now on, if a mobile company in Africa regularly delivers inferior service to its customers, the network operators could be sent to prison. These charges are handed down by Nigeria's Consumer Protection Council (CPC) which operates as a sort of government sponsored consumer watchdog group. It seems strict, but this heavy punishment is on the line because the Nigerian government feels consumers are being tricked into paying for shady, low quality services.

Apparently, the mobile market in Africa is plagued with substandard service. We're not talking about the still-on-3G type of substandard. Dropped calls are so ubiquitous that last year the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) banned mobile providers from signing new customers until providers improved the networks properly. Fines were imposed, but it did nothing to change the way mobile networks are operating in Africa.

When Nigeria's customers do get cellular reception, they are hassled by large amounts of unsolicited calls and texts. These kinds of problems are prolific throughout the rest of Africa's telecom sectors as well. Nigeria has the largest telecom sector in all of Africa, so the way it handles this situation is likely to influence surrounding African nations.

So far, inferior mobile providers have been ignoring the NCC's rules and intimidation. We'll see if the threat of prison time for the deleterious mobile operators yields a stronger result.

Source: PCWorld