The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has ordered telecommunications companies to compensate subscribers affected by poor network services and prolonged outages.

The directive, issued by the NCC through its Head of Public Affairs, Nnenna Ukoha, mandates telecom operators to provide compensation whenever major service disruptions last more than 24 hours.

Under the new policy, affected subscribers are expected to receive proportional compensation, including airtime, data top-ups or extension of validity periods, depending on the nature and duration of the outage.

The Commission also directed mobile network operators, internet service providers and other last-mile service providers to immediately notify customers of any major outage. Operators must disclose the cause of the disruption, the affected areas and the estimated time required to restore service.

For planned maintenance or scheduled outages, telecom companies are now required to inform subscribers at least seven days in advance.

According to the NCC, a major outage includes disruptions affecting at least five per cent of an operator’s subscribers, service failures in five or more Local Government Areas, or shutdowns involving 100 or more network sites for at least 30 minutes.

The Commission said the move is aimed at improving transparency, strengthening consumer protection and holding telecom operators accountable amid increasing complaints over dropped calls, slow internet speeds and unstable networks across Nigeria.

,