Plans by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to sanction its members for alleged poor quality network have been criticised by the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON).

The operators have rather insisted that the NCC should address lingering obstacles that stand in the way of better network performance instead of issuing threats.

The operators also said the lowering of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) approach adopted by the NCC was not the solution to tackling the problems.

ALTON chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, urged the NCC to ensure it removed all bottlenecks working against network expansion and service deliveries in the industry.

“Do not reduce KPIs but remove every obstacle and challenge that is working against us in the course of delivering better service quality to the good people of Nigeria, and see if we will not perform at best,” Adebayo stated.

He blamed the current poor state of telecoms services on excess demands from government agencies and described the demands as exorbitant.

He explained that the refusal of telecoms operators to yield to such demands has made government and even social ‘miscreants’ come hard on them, leading to work stoppages at sites at various times.

Adebayo also blamed the situation on willful destruction of telecoms facilities by Nigerians.

He argued that unless there was a law that declared telecoms infrastructure as critical national infrastructure that must be guarded, people would continue to destroy such material.

“If such law exists, people will not think of destroying telecoms facilities at will for fear of the law.”