Regulator must sit up

Communications page Graphic Business, September 9/2008

By Charles Benoni Okine

Some two decades back, the only means to communicate on phone was through the fixed line operated exclusively by the then Post and Telecommunication (P&T) Corporation. So that it was virtually the affluent in society and mainly companies and institutions that owned telephones. This, therefore made it difficult for people to communicate.
As if that era will not end, the global technological evolution caught up with Ghana and the first cellular phone network was introduced. It was called Mobitel, an analogue mobile telephony network which caught up so well with the people to an extent that it became a household name.
As the years went by, an advanced network system, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), was introduced and although that was more expensive, many gradually switched to that network. Today those who even introduced the analogue system have metamophosised to use the GSM to be abreast of the times.
In realising the growth of the sector and the challenges it might pose if not regulated, the wise thing was done.
In 1996, through an Act of Parliament, Act 524 of 1996, the National Communications Authority (NCA), the regulatory authority for the regulation of communications in Ghana was born with the vision to excel in proving effective and transparent regulatory process in order to facilitate the creation of efficient and innovative communications industry providing reliable and accessible service
Its mission is also to regulate the industry by setting and enforcing high standards of competence and performance to enable it to contribute significantly and fairly to the nation's prosperity through the provision of efficient and competitive services.
It objectives are :
1. To ensure that communication systems operators achieve the highest level of efficiency in the provision of communications services and are responsive to customers and community needs;
2. To promote fair competition among persons engaged in the provision of communications services;
3. To protect the interest of the consumers;
4. To facilitate the availability of quality equipment to consumers and operators;
5. To research into and the development of technologies and use of new technologies by provision communications services and to develop adequate human resources in collaboration with such other government departments and agencies as the Authority considers appropriate.
After the NCA had been in existent for 12, the challenges are even becoming enormous with the entry of three more powerful players such as Zain, Globacom and Vodafone which has virtually swallowed GhanaTelecom.

THE CUSTOMERS BANE
In spite of the role that the NCA has been mandated to play, customers continue to suffer because of their inability to have value for money. The regulator seems overwhelmed by the problems because nothing much has changed since the new Director General roared at a news conference, a week after his appointment, advertently to scare the players who were only three at the time.
Customers complained bitterly before the entry of the three new giants, Vodafone, Globacom and Zain, because they felt they are being short-changed while the regulator sits unconcerned. From the President down to the labourer and even to those who depend of relatives, friends and loves ones for phones to be able to access any of the networks, none is satisfied with the services rendered by the mobile telephony operators namely; MTN, Onetouch and to some extent, tiGO and Kasapa.
One makes a call from one network to the other and although one may be standing close by, the response is “the network you are calling is either switched off or its out of coverage area”. What is even appalling is when the call is within the same network and the same response is heard.
Another bane is where a call is made and for more than 10 seconds, there is no response from the other party, yet the credit runs.
Customers also go through the challenge where a customer makes a call to a particular line only for it to land on another person's line. Sometimes it is interesting to find the person's name and number, yet in actual sense, a different person unknown to you speaks and the credits run the same way.
Some have also complained that they buy credit and load but after only the first minute of a call, everything is fully exhausted.
There have also been complains about what the operators allegedly do when they run promotions. During promotions when customers are dashed some credit, they tend to lose the credits faster than normal to the extent that it even affects their original credits before the promotion.



THE IRONY:
As enumerated above, the vision, mission and objectives of the NCA has been well spelt out without any ambiguities, yet the question has remained since day one that, to what extent has the NCA been able to live up to expectation as far as its control of the mobile telephone sector is concerned.
When the number of operators within the mobile telephony sector began to increase, Ghanaians and for that matter customers were made to understand that it was the intention of the government past and present to ensure that as many people as possible had access to the networks to enhance communication.
That made the regulator to allow the operators to concentrate more on expansion to the absolute neglect of service quality. Subscribers continued to pay more but only for bad services.
Once in a while, the regulator will come out with a statement to warn operators to live up to expectation to avoid sanctions but those threats have been proven to be empty to a large extent.
A typical example of this was when the regulator fined one of the leading operators, for persistently providing poor services to subscribers. Amazingly, it has not been able to collect the money and continue to offer excuses for its refusal to do so.
This year the NCA celebrated it 10th year of existence but it still remains a mirage, what its achievements has been over the period.
Perhaps, it could boast of the fact that it had been able to oversee the growth in teledensity which is the number of people out of every 100 people with mobile phones in the country to some 25 per cent as of the end of 2007 while that of the whole of Africa was around an average of 14 per cent. The rate is still growing and there is a lot more room, hence the entry of the three giants. Recent results, although unconfirmed for lack of data on the regulator’s website, puts the teledensity at between 35 and 40 per cent.
This is remarkable by all standards but what needs to be made clear is that it was not as if the regulator has been more up to the task but because there is an insatiable taste for mobile phone services by a majority of the people. There is no doubt that people year to own phones because of pride and the need for to live in tandem with the times. Under normal circumstances, the kind of services received from the operators should put people off but that, fortunately for the NCA is not the case so that they could claim credit where they do not deserve it.
In this case, however, it must be noted again that the regulator cannot take credit for what is happening in the industry in terms of growth in teledensity.
The NCA has a website but the last time it was updated was last year so that today people are not even aware of the latest numbers regarding what pertains in the sector.
The players in the industry are all foreign based companies with a motive to make profits. It is known about such multinational companies, what they are able to do when the regulatory environment is weak and the regulator for whatever reasons is unable to stamp its authority.
It is against this background that there seem to be some kind of anxiety as to the preparedness of the regulator to be on top of its responsibilities when competition has become even keener and even going to get worse when the new players start operating.
Competition is, no doubt, a paramount weapon to check all manner of fraudulent moves in a market but it will not be in the interest of the customers for the regulator to allow market forces to correct the wrongs in the system. The virtual lack of checks on the players in the system today is a reason for the kind of services customers are enjoying today.
When the new Director-General held a news conference to announce his intentions to streamline the negatives in the industry, it was received with a lot of expectations but since then, the NCA has not spoken to allay the fears and anxieties of the customers.
There has been issues raised about number portability where a customer can maintain his/her number but shift to another network. There is dead silence about how soon the regulator will come in with a device to give customers the opportunity to choose which operator they want at a particular. If for nothing at all, the system could be a check on the players and that alone can make them live up to expectation.
The quarterly rating of the operators which was started once before has to be suspended because there were a lot of agitations from the players, particularly from those who were below the line. They questioned what criteria the NCA used to judge them and wondered if the regulator even had a system to monitor their service quality levels. Since then, the NCA has been mute about the whole thing leaving room for doubt with regards to its authority as a regulator. It is known that the players have influential powers that makes them have their way in many things they do but to what extent will this be allowed to continue when the regulator is fully mandated to live up to expectation.
There have been struggles over inter-connectivity charges in the past, particularly between then Areeba now MTN and OneTouch which took several years to resolve partially. As the saying goes, ‘when two elephants fight, it is mother earth that suffers so that with the entry of the three giants, to what extent is the NCA going to handle that imminent battle?

Conclusions:
In this sector which is seen as one of the most lucrative across the world because of its contribution to the growth of economies, it is important to have a strong regulator to be on top of its responsibilities. The regulator needs the players in the industry and the customers to be justify its existence and so is the case in the reverse. It is against this background that the role of the regulator is paramount to ensure the service triangle made up of the regulator, the players and the customers is kept together to ensure in the first place, that customers have value for money; that customers are not cheated as has been the case for many years; that the quality of service that the customers receive are the right kind of service.
Secondly to the players, it is for the NCA to monitor their activities closely to ensure that none of them uses unconventional tactics to outdo the other because of its likely impact on the regulator itself and the customers. It can be recalled what happened some six years ago when there were seriously misunderstandings between arose with regards to issues of inter-connectivity charges between two of the most popular players, Areeba then and now MTN and OneTouch soon to be Vodafone.
It is important to note that the NCA has an assembly of some of the best brains as far as the demands of regulator is concerned but it is very much understaffed and that to a large extent has made it over burdened. Since their tasks is even going to be more enormous in a few months time, it is necessary for a second look at the staff strength and the acquisition of new equipment to enable it to face the challenges ahead.
The vision of the regulator to excel in providing effective and transparent regulatory process in order to facilitate the creation of efficient and innovative communications industry providing reliable and accessible service should be felt.
Its mission to also regulate the industry by setting and enforcing high standards of competence and performance to enable it to contribute significantly and fairly to the nation's prosperity through the provision of efficient and competitive services should also not be toyed with.
The NCA has a future but how well is it positioned to live up to the task as far as the mobile telephony sector is concerned.