The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has appealed to telecom consumers to assist in protecting network infrastructures in their environment from vandalism, to ensure quality service delivery.

Prof. Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC made the appeal at the Consumers Conversation Forum in Jos on Thursday.

The News Agency  of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the forum marked the sixth  Consumer conversation organised by the commission in the North-Central Zone.

Danbatta, who was represented at the Forum by Ms Helen Obi, Head of Zonal Operations, NCC, said that by protecting these infrastructure, the networks would be up and running.

According to him, safeguarding the infrastructure should be a joint effort of all stakeholders as most of the consumers live in various locality.

“We have some of these infrastructure vandalised while some illegally shut down and network providers cannot gain access to the base stations to solve the problem of quality of service.

“We are requesting the consumers to try and secure the infrastructure in their environment.

“By doing that, vandalism will reduce and the issue of poor quality of service will be reduced to the minimum,” he said.

Danbatta said that  the consumer conversation programme was aimed at protecting, educating, and empowering telecom consumers to know their rights as they play a strategic role.

He said that this was  geared towards ensuring sustainable growth and development in the telecom sector.

Danbatta added that the Commission was not leaving any stone unturned in ensuring the consumers’ satisfaction from the services rendered by their telecom operators.

The NCC boss cleared the notion that telecom masts don’t transmit hazardous radiation as widely and wrongly being speculated.

He added that the antenna was positioned far away from human reach and therefore, did not pose any risk to human life.

Danbatta said that the commission had put in place guidelines that regulated the installation of telecom masts as well as consideration of environmental factors.

“Empowering the consumer is one of the commission’s driving force for the year, having declared it as “Year of the telecom consumer.”

He advised consumers to take advantage of sending “STOP” to the 2442 code to stop all unsolicited text messages, or “HELP” to the same code to be availed with options of interest.

Danbatta added that when issues were not resolved by their telecom operators or if still not satisfied, they should make complaints to the Commission via its toll free line 622.

Earlier, the Chairman of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau, Gideon Davou, commended NCC for the initiative.

He said such initiative would afford the consumers to explain the problems that they had with their network providers to NCC and called on service providers to step up efforts in ensuring consumers’ satisfaction.

Another participant, Mr Thomas Achi said that the forum was a welcomed development and urged NCC to take it to the rural areas to enlighten the consumers at the grassroots.

“NCC has done well but they should take the forum to those in the rural area for more enlightenment on the issue,” he said.