By Telecom Lead Team:
Bharti Airtel Africa along with its two competitors has been
penalized for not meeting quality of service standards by sector
regulator ARCEP in West African country Burkina Faso.
Burkina Faso has fined
its three mobile telephony operators a total of 3 billion CFA francs ($6
million) for not fulfilling their service commitments. Maroc Telecom unit
Telmob and local operator Telecel are the two other fined operators.
The fines apply to
Maroc Telecom unit Telmob (1.09 billion CFA), Bharti’s Airtel (894 million CFA)
and local operator Telecel (724 million CFA).
ARCEP has imposed
penalty of around 2.7 billion CFA (Rs 27 crore approximately) on
Airtel, Telmob and Telecel. Maximum penalty of 1.08 billion CFA (Rs 10.8
crore) has been imposed on Telmob followed by 894 million (Rs 8.9 crore) CFA on
Airtel and 724 million CFA (Rs 7.24 crore) on Telecel.
“The decision was
communicated to operators 8 February 2012, with all the information required to
enable them to discharge these penalties,” said Mathurin BAKO, officer of
the Order at ARCEP.
The regulatory body
ARCEP said that there would be no right of appeal. It said the companies would
be subject to checks to make sure they had improved service provision.
The ARCEP added that
the penalty has been imposed on these operators after it carried out two rounds
of quality of service audit being provided by them in May-June and
November-December 2011 period.
Burkina Faso has
around 8 million mobile subscribers in a population of 17 million.
Recently, Bharti Airtel‘s Africa operations posted a decline in its net loss to $ 52 million
during quarter ended December 31, 2011, against $119 million in the same period
last year.
Total revenue rose by
$ 1,057 million during October-December quarter, against $ 911 million in the
same period last fiscal. During the quarter, the company incurred a capital
expenditure of $ 265 million on its African operation.
editor@telecomlead.com
