Telecommunications operators in Nigeria have dismissed notions that the recent attempt by the Nigerian Communications Commission to commission a cost-based study to determine fresh mobile termination rates will lead to an increase in telecom tariffs in the country.
The telcos said such assumptions would only wrongly pre-empt the outcome of the market study and throw the industry into baseless panic mode, when in several instances prices could even drop depending on the outcome of the study.
Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, Engr Gbenga Adebayo, who spoke to Vanguard exclusively, said: “There is no need to throw the sector into panic mode over NCC’s usual engagement with stakeholders to determine a way forward for an aspect of telecom activities.”
“That is exactly what NCC did with the gathering of stakeholders to discuss modalities for reviewing eight-year-old mobile termination rate. Why are people immediately jumping to conclusions that reviewing MTR will inflate tariffs?”
“All we should be concerned about is that everybody in the sector presents genuine components of cost which will help to determine termination rates. Any other thing will be pre-empting a noble industry practice.”
The NCC, on Tuesday, appeared to have succumbed to the consistent pushing of the telcos for a fundamental overhaul of the country’s wholesale pricing framework after mobile termination rates remained at a permanent fixture for eight years.
The telcos said despite inflation, currency depreciation and rising network costs, leaving rates at a place would neither help them, the subscribers nor balance the economics of the industry.
The current MTR of N3.90 per minute for established operators and N4.70 for newer entrants has remained in place since 2018, surviving one of the most turbulent economic periods in Nigeria’s recent history.
During that period, the naira lost significant value, inflation accelerated, energy costs surged, and operators spent trillions of naira expanding and modernising their networks.
According to the NCC, consulting firm KPMG will be supporting the study. The review extends beyond voice termination rates and could result in broader changes across the telecommunications landscape as it will examine international termination rates, USSD pricing, Application-to-Person messaging services, retail voice price controls and wholesale frameworks for MVNOs.
Supporting the review, Adebayo said: “The sector should now transition from periodic tariff interventions towards a more predictable, transparent and cost-oriented pricing regime.”
He noted that the review comes at a critical time for an industry that has become one of Nigeria’s most important economic sectors. According to industry figures presented at the forum, telecommunications investment has grown from about $500 million when the sector was liberalised in 2001 to more than $75.6 billion today.
The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria urged the commission to retain the asymmetric regime for smaller operators with less than 10 per cent market share, arguing that such protections remained necessary to sustain competition and encourage market participation. The NCC said the review would assess whether existing rates still reflected the true cost of providing termination services and whether the current asymmetric pricing structure remained appropriate.
