DATA PRICE HIKE MAY STILL BE IN THE OFFING- MTN IN SUPPORT OF DATA HIKE

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr Ferdinand Moolman yesterday appealed to the Senate at the Senate hearing on Data price floor in Abuja, to consider the Data price floor as set by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC. He pleaded that data price in Nigeria is among the lowest in the continent. The MTN CEO also attributed the inability of telecom operators to access forex, inflation and activities of the unlicensed providers of “over-the-top” telecoms services (OTT) as factors contributing to the losses recorded by licensed Mobile Operators

Moolman said, “MTN looks forward to the cost study as confirmed by the NCC, and remains committed to working with the Regulator and Industry to ensure fair value and fair competition in the Nigerian market”.

With this representation at the Senate hearing, it becomes clearer that MTN and some other large mobile operators may be in subtle support of the data hike. The reason is that it will increase revenue for their business in the long run. NCC’s initial excuse, that the new price floor is to ensure better competition and help smaller operators, has been brought into question. NCC owes Nigerians a duty to come clean on who exactly it is protecting- the average Nigerian or the telecommunications companies

You can read the original story from the Vanguard Newspaper