He said that the rainstorm, which was often accompanied by heavy wind, usually disrupted services.in the area.
“Some of our facilities in Bauchi State which supply services to Jigawa were destroyed by terrorists recently,’’ he said.
The manager said that efforts were on to improve services provided by Glo, adding that their engineers were currently at various locations across the nation to rectify some identified problems.
Meanwhile, mobile operators in Yobe have blamed the insecurity and lack of electricity supply for the poor services experienced in some parts of the state.
Besides, an engineer with one of the service providers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told NAN in Damaturu that the service providers lost some of their equipment to the activities of terrorists in the state.
“Masts and generators were razed down by the attackers. The other service providers have put their facilities back to use, but we still don’t have Glo service across the state because of the equipment that was destroyed.
“It is also important to note that the operators run their equipment on generators, using diesel; this also accounts for the high cost and breakdown in service because of wear and tear on the generators,” he said.
Investigation by NAN on the increase in the prices of recharge cards revealed that there are very few dealers who supply the cards.
Ali Isa, a recharge card vendor, explained: “We have to travel to Kano or Gombe to buy the cards and the conditions, including deposits to be made to the service operators, makes the whole process cumbersome and challenging.
“When the cards are supplied, some vendors add a little amount to cover the cost of transportation and other logistics because the gain on recharge cards is very minimal.’’
However, mobile phone users said they were forced to pay extra N20 on the recharge cards in spite of advertisements by service operators that the cost of recharge cards was fixed and stable.
On the customer care lines provided for complaints, some customers said they were not aware of the lines and had not been using them while others complained that “the operators keep one waiting for too long.”
Fati Musa, a student, said, “they will keep you waiting until you get tired and switch off so, why waste my time.’’
The survey, however, showed that operators in Gombe State are trying to surmount their challenges by devising measures to tackle them. Some GSM service providers in Gombe said they had adopted new products by opening small offices to improve their service delivery and satisfy their customers.[eap_ad_2]
Mr Austine Daniel, a salesman at Globacom office in the state capital, told NAN that the firm had increased the number of its sites to 15 in the state and was extending its coverage to other areas to improve services.
He said when completed, the network services would be extended to areas where coverage was hitherto difficult, adding that the quality of the services would consequently improve.
Daniel also said the company had reduced its Turn-Around Time, a period during which customers’ complaints are addressed, to less than one hour, as part of efforts to satisfy customers.
On differences in the cost of recharge cards in Gombe, he said the company had set up a committee to ensure uniform prices.
He said the company was using the media to sensitise the public to the services which Globacom offered as well as other issues that would improve its service delivery.
Miss Paula Paul, New Dawn Manager of MtN Trade Partner in Gombe, said the company had bought 3G network facility to increase the strength of its services, especially for those browsing on the network.
However, NAN found out that as part of solutions to the various problems observed, operators like MTN, GLO and Etisalat have installed the 3G system.
GLO has also opened smaller offices in the headquarters of local government areas across the country to get their services closer to subscribers at the grass-roots level.
Subscribers, on their part, called on the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), as a regulatory body, to try and curtail the excesses of operators found to be short-changing subscribers.
The Director of Public Affairs, NCC, Mr Tony Ojobo, told NAN that subscribers had legal rights to call the hot line of the commission to report any ill treatment by the network providers across the country.
