Sierra Leone: Civil society group to sue mobile companies over poor service

21 Septembre 2017

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, September 21 (Infosplusgabon) - A civil society group, Native Consortium and Research Center, have threatened to file a class action law suit against mobile telephone operators in the country, if they do not compensate customers for their poor service.

In a press conference on Wednesday, the group gave a 72-hour ultimatum to Africell and Airtel to compensate customers for offering them poor services. Native Consortium is also planning to sue the mobile regulatory body in the country, the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM).

The legal adviser of the Consortium, Musa Pious Sesay, said the group has gathered over 500 subscribers as litigants to launch a case against the companies and the regulator. He described their services to subscribers as “unfair, poor and failing.”

Two weeks ago, NATCOM fined all three mobile operators in the country a sum total of US$ 1.4 million. The fine was as a result of their failure to meet with standard performance benchmarks that were set by the regulator.

As part of the fine, the telecom regulator demanded that all three companies give subscribers 72 hours of free talk time. The companies merely gave a total of 18 hours over the three days. Subscribers complained about clogged up lines or bad network during these 18 hours.

This class action is set to be the first of its kind in history of Sierra Leone judiciary. Executive Director of the group, Edmund Abu Junior, told  Infosplusgabon on Thursday “We want to set precedence for our jurisprudence.”

The mobile companies that would be involved in the law suit have not responded to this latest ultimatum. Both companies say the letter that the consortium wrote was not addressed to them therefore they cannot comment.

Mobile companies in Sierra Leone are notorious for problems like drop calls, missing units and expensive data plans.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/BVN/GABON 2017

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