Mobile Quality of Service Regulation in Nigeria: Lessons from a Comparative Study

Abstract

This article compares mobile quality of service (QoS) regulation in Ghana, United Kingdom and Nigeria with the aim of deriving any applicable lessons from the two jurisdictions to improve Nigerian practice. Its scope is restricted to comparison of mobile QoS regulation under existing legal frameworks in the three countries. It finds that while the Office of Communications (OFCOM) has adopted a largely facilitative role of causing the provision of adequate comparable information between operators to consumers to enable consumers make better purchasing decisions, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Ghana’s National Communications Authority NCA adopt a more protective role. This entails enforcing target parameters to ensure that consumers do not suffer from reductions in QoS levels provided as a result of competition between operators. It also finds that there are some similarities between the range of actual parameters enforced against network operators in Nigeria and Ghana as well as similarities in the range of sanctions available against underperforming operators in both countries. This is in contrast to OFCOM’s practice of not stipulating target parameters for enforcement against operators. It however recommends that NCC adopts NCA’s practice of localising the result of QoS enforcement for operators to specific reporting areas. This would ensure the utilisation of targeted sanctions to require underperforming operators to construct or acquire adequate infrastructural capacity for the seamless conveyance of electronic communications traffic.