Guidelines on Procedure for Granting Approval to Disconnect Telecommunications Operators issued by Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC
Part I: General
1. Introduction
(1) The Nigerian Communications Commission (the Commission) has been reposed with powers under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 (the Act) to, inter-alia
(a) Grant approvals for the disconnection or discontinuance of interconnection to a licensee under any circumstance
(b) Make and publish guidelines on any matter for the due administration of provisions of the Act.
(2) These Guidelines are developed to ensure that the procedure for granting approval by the Commission of the disconnection or discontinuance of interconnection to a licensee is founded on a predetermined framework to engender transparency, certainty and fairness.
(3) The Commission believes that tariffs do not in whole represent the revenue accruable to an operator. Consequently, an operator shall upon receipt of such tariffs ensure that it deducts and sets aside the interconnection fees payable to its interconnect partners, and effect payment thereof in accordance with the terms of duly executed interconnection agreements.
2. Guiding Principles
(1) The Commission shall in granting approval for the disconnection of an operator be guided by the need to ensure that the interest of consumers is protected, and to this end:
(a) The Commission would at all times only allow the disconnection of out-bound calls from a debtor operators network
(b) Disconnection, where it is approved in the first instance, would be effected by a gradual reduction in the number of interconnection circuits available to a debtor operator.
3. Request for Approval to Disconnect
(1) Every operator has a right to apply to the Commission for approval to disconnect an interconnected operator for failure or refusal to settle interconnect indebtedness or for any other reasons established under the Act or any subsidiary legislation made by the Commission.
(2) Applications for approval to disconnect operators should at all times contain information on the following issues
i. Amount of indebtedness.
ii. Efforts made
at recovery.
iii. Evidence of reconciliation of accounts.
iv. Proof of submission to the Commission of the interconnection agreement between the parties
(3) Upon receipt of a request for approval to disconnect from the requesting operator, the Commission shall forthwith forward the request to the debtor operator requiring such operators comments and/or reasons why approval should not be granted for the disconnection.
(4) The comments and/or reasons which the Commission shall take into consideration in determining whether or not approval should be granted shall be forwarded to the Commission not later than seven (7) days from the date of receipt of the letter from the Commission.
(5) For record purposes a copy of the letter from the Commission to the debtor operator shall also be communicated to the requesting operator.
4. Additional Information from the Requesting Operator
(1) Notwithstanding the specific provisions of section 3 hereof, nothing in these guidelines shall preclude the Commission from requesting for any additional information which it may require in considering an application for consent to disconnect an operator.
5. Conditions for the Grant of Approval to Disconnect
(1) In considering a request for the approval to disconnect an operator for interconnection indebtedness, the Commission would as a condition precedent determine whether the requesting operator had exchanged CDRs with the debtor operator on demand and whether such CDRs had been reconciled and the outstanding amount agreed by both operators.
(2) The duration of the indebtedness must not be less than ninety (90) days
(3) In addition, the decision of the
Commission on a request for approval shall be guided by the following considerations:
i. The total amount of indebtedness relative to the annual turn over of the debtor operator.
ii. Previous payment record of the debtor operator
iii. The antecedents of the debtor operator vis-à-vis payment of interconnection indebtedness to its interconnecting parties.
iv. The size of the network of the debtor operator as reflected by the volume of traffic being generated.
(4) For purposes connected with the determination of the total amount of indebtedness owed by parties, where an operator fails to submit reliable CDRs after fifteen (15) days of the demand thereof, the CDRs submitted by the other interconnecting party shall be deemed as the proper and correct records of indebtedness of the parties.
Part II: Decisions of the Commission
6. Execution of Undertaking
(1) Where a determination is made that a debt is due upon the effluxion of the ninety (90) days time period, the Commission would invite the debtor operator to a meeting.
(2) Where at such a meeting a debtor operator shows good faith and intention to pay, the debtor operator would be required to sign an undertaking on terms acceptable to the requesting operator.
(3) Non-compliance with the terms of undertaking will result in the imposition of sanctions as may be determined by the Commission.
7. Pre-Disconnection Notice
(1) If the indebtedness or a part thereof remains unpaid for a period not exceeding thirty (30) days after the date of undertaking, the Commission shall publish a notice to the subscribers of the debtor operator informing them that the operator is unable to pay its indebtedness and is likely to be disconnected from the network of a named operator.
(2) Upon the issuance of such notification, the Commission shall at its discretion allow a grace period not exceeding thirty (30) days within which desiring subscribers would be at liberty to make arrangements to migrate from the debtor operators network to another network.
8. Notice to Parties
(1) The Commission shall not publish any notice to subscribers pursuant to section 7 above, unless prior notice of the approval to disconnect has been given to both the requesting operator and debtor operator.
(2) In every case where notice is given to a debtor operator, such notice shall include a directive to settle any indebtedness within seven (7) from the date of receipt of the letter failing which notice of the disconnection shall be published to subscribers of the debtor operator.
9. Partial Disconnection
(1) Where a determination is made on the merits that a request for approval to disconnect should be granted on grounds that the debtor operator has not demonstrated a reasonable ability to settle its indebtedness, the Commission hereby reserves the right to authorize a requesting operator to partially disconnect the debtor operator on terms to be decided by the Commission.
10. Disconnection
(1) If the Commission is not satisfied with the efforts made by a debtor operator to settle its indebtedness during the course of an approval for partial disconnection, the Commission may subject to section 2 above, grant approval for disconnection of the debtor operator.
11. Definition
In these Guidelines, unless the context otherwise requires, all terms shall have the same meaning as under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.
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