Chairman and Commissioner of NATCOM, Momoh Konte announced to newsmen on Friday that Airtel is mandated to pay the fine within seven working days or face further punitive measures.
He said the action will serve as a precedent for mobile companies to provide quality network to subscribers. He however noted that the company is doing well in several other areas, but needed to do more in the area of network improvement and subscribers trust.
He called a meeting he held with all mobile operators in February 2015 when he assumed office, where it was agreed that mobile operators should operate in line with international best practices.
Konte said this decision could have come earlier than now due to persistent complaints from the public, but that NATCOM could not penalise operators without scientific evidence of default.
According to him, NATCOM now has sufficient evidence to substantiate that the company was guilty as charged and that the law must take it cause.
He used the forum as an opportunity to call on other operators to maintain standards while cautioning that NATCOM will not hesitate to penalise any defaulting company, as according to him, they were now determined more than ever before to restore sanity in the telecommunications industry.