Customers Groan under Poor Internet Services

Emma Okonji

Customers of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are worried about the continued poor internet service delivery they receive from ISPs.

They blamed the situation on weak internet infrastructure across the country.

According to them, they get disconnected intermittently from the internet, especially at a time when they required the service the most, a situation that is said to be hurting businesses that rely heavily on internet.

Some of the customers who spoke to THISDAY, said they pay so much for monthly subscription, yet they do not get the full value of their monthly subscription. A particular customer said he left his former ISP because of poor internet service he was getting from that ISP, and paid close to N500,000 to another ISP for a complete new connectivity and accessories, including one-month subscription, only for him to suffer the same fate of poor internet connectivity and frequent disconnection from the internet.

He said he got frustrated the more when at the end of the month, the ISP would cut him off completely whenever there is little delay in renewing the monthly subscription, without considering compensation for the downtime suffered by their customers.

The customers, therefore, have called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCS), the industry regulator, to compel ISPs to compensate for any downtime suffered by their customers and to ensure that service providers deliver unhindered internet access to customers, especially those that are in business of making money.

Different customers who complained to THISDAY accused virtually all the registered ISPs in the country, saying they are all the same, delivering epileptic internet service to their customers.

Telecoms operators who are gradually shifting from voice to data communication that are equally providing internet connectivity to customers, were not spared either.

According to the customers that spoke on conditions of anonymity, internet service delivery in the country remains generally poor, while insisting that something urgently must be done to address the issue.

But in a quick reaction, WiFi.com.ng, one of the registered ISPs blamed the customers for some of the challenges.
Marketing Lead at WiFi.com.ng, Mr. Awani Jesse, said some of the complaints from customers were not actually technical in nature, and that customers were not patient most time to get simple disconnections properly fixed before they complain.

According to him, most times “we get several schedules for support services and we attend to customers as they come but most customers are not patient enough to wait for our technical team to visit their locations to get it fixed. In many cases the issue could be mere adjustment of the plugs and cables at the customer location.”

On the issue of compensation for downtime, Jesse said WiFi.com.ng understood perfectly what internet connectivity meant to business and that the company always ensure compensation for downtime, if it was discovered that the challenge was from the ISP.