Airtel on the edge of loosing cash as Sierra Leone fines them $1million

Sierra Leone’s telecommunication regulator, the National Telecommunication Commission (NATCOM), has fined one of the country’s leading telcos Airtel $1 million for poor services.

Airtel, which is a subsidiary of the Indian-owned Bharti Airtel, was also accused of exploiting subscribers through its billing systems.

NATCOM officials said March 11, 2016 that Airtel consistently failed to meet international standards of mobile services provision.

The company has been given seven working days to pay the fine.

“The Commission has been following up for the last six months. The decision to fine Airtel was made in December,” said Momoh Konte, Chairman of Board of Directors at NATCOM.

Sierra Leone currently has three functioning mobile operators: Airtel, Africell, and latest entrant Smart Mobile. The fourth, Comium, was recently declared bankrupt.

Smart’s coverage is presently limited to the capital Freetown.

There are no official statics to tell who is leader between the other two. They both often claim to control the largest subscriber base.

Due to consistently poor coverage, complaints from subscribers, and high cross network tariff charges, almost every mobile phone owner in Sierra Leone is subscribed to at least two of the leading networks.

NATCOM said Airtel has consistently failed to meet most of its key performance indicators, notably an agreed 95 per cent Call handover success rate per month, a call congestion rate of less than 1.5 per cent per month, and an acceptable 2 per cent of drop call rate per month.

Airtel has also been ordered to halt using a data charging system called “Pay as you go” because the operator is suspected to be “exploiting” its subscribers through it. NATCOM is to conduct an audit on the Telco’s billing system.

“We are not here to make money but to serve as a referee between the consumer and the operator,” said NATCOM board chairman, Mr Konte.

Airtel Sierra Leone is one of two African subsidiaries, including Burkina Faso, Bharti sold off to the French telecom giant Orange in January.