Johnkennedy Uzoma
8 October 2008
Owerri — The Senate Committee Chairman on Communication, Senator Sylvester Anyanwu has said that the N4.5b sanction placed on GSM service providers in the country is to encourage them improve on their services.
Anyanwu, representing Imo North disclosed this to newsmen in Owerri yesterday, explaining that the senate committee was forced to place the sanction as a result of congestion, drop calls and failed calls being experienced in the country. He said that on assumption of office as committee chairman, he noticed that most of the service providers were busy putting a lot of people on line and selling SIM cards without cause to improve on their net works.
He also said that some of them were reluctant in locating their BTF stations both in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory and in all parts of the country, saying instead of improving their services they were busy ripping people off. According to him, since their intervention, the situation has changed to the extent that within six months, net work providers in the country have deployed over 450 BTF stations all over the country, adding that the essence was to encourage competition among them. He noted that the step taken by the senate committee was to ensure that Nigerians are not ripped off any longer by any service provider operating in the country, assuring that the committee as part of its over sight functions insisted on visiting all the BTF stations to see things. Sen. Anyanwu disclosed that one of the major achievements of the committee was to stop the net work providers from exporting their proceeds and investing outside the country. He said the committee would not want to discourage the service providers from making profits.
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