The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has told mobile network operators and internet providers to inform their customers when a major service disruption is about to happen.
This notice must include the areas affected, how long the outage might last, and what steps are being taken to fix the issue.
The Commission gave this instruction in a circular sent to telecom firms.
It explained that operators must use public media to share details of any major disruption.
If the outage is planned, customers must be informed at least one week before it begins.
The NCC said this move is aimed at making sure users are kept up to date when service interruptions occur.
It also wants companies to handle such issues quickly and treat their customers fairly.
When an outage lasts longer than 24 hours, service providers are expected to give compensation.
This could mean extending the duration of active data or airtime, depending on the rules in the Consumer Code of Practice.
The Commission also described what counts as a major outage.
These include situations like fibre cuts caused by road work, vandalism, or theft, especially when they affect five or more local government areas or at least five percent of a provider’s customer base.
It also includes cases where 100 or more base stations go down for 30 minutes or more, or when network quality drops in Nigeria’s busiest states.
To track these issues, telecom companies are required to report all such outages through a special portal on the Commission’s website.
The portal is open to the public and shows who or what caused the disruption.
The NCC added that this reporting system had been tested with network providers before now.
The goal is to ensure people are properly informed when problems happen and that whoever is responsible for damage to telecom facilities can be identified and held to account.
