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FG, GSM Operators To Meet Over Tariff Hike

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NCC Gives Update On Restoration Of Data, Voice Services To Nigerians
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Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria have announced that it will soon begin discussions concerning the state of the telecoms industry with the Federal Government through the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman, ALTON disclosed this during a chat with Punch on Monday.

He said, “We do not give a timeline to our regulator. We would only give information as to what is the current state of affairs in the industry. And we know the regulator would either conduct a study or review the data that we provided. So, we can’t give a timeline to our regulator.

“We expect that some conversations will now commence around it.”

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This declaration is in response to a recent letter by the association to the NCC on the state of the telecoms industry.

In the letter, Telcos suggested a 40 per cent increase in the cost of calls, SMS, and data due to the rising cost of running businesses in the country.

However NCC has warned that Telcos cannot increase costs without due regulatory approval from them.

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The NCC stated, “However, while there could be justifiable reasons for MNOs’ demand for tariff increase, it should be noted that they are not allowed to do such either individually or collectively without recourse to NCC, following the outcome of a cost study. This is not the case for now.”

Adebayo also revealed during an interview on  Sunrise Daily that the current pricing regime in the telecom industry could not sustain the industry.

According to him: “We are confronted with different economic realities. And the fact remains that if you look at the economic indices, the current pricing regime is not sustainable.

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“And what we have done is to approach our regulator, to present a case to them to show them where we are as an industry. We made some recommendations as to some of the things that can be done to forestall the price review.

“But certainly, considering the global energy price considering the challenges we face in our operating environment, if we are not getting any regulatory intervention, it would be a bit difficult to sustain the industry with the current pricing regime that we have.”