Following
the backlash that followed the decision of Telecoms companies to hike
the price of data, the Minister of Communication has spoken on the
issue.
Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu
The Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu has denied knowledge
of an increase in data tariff by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The NCC raised the data floor price for telcos on Tuesday effective
December 1, forcing mobile telecommunications operators to drive up the
price of data.
Speaking on the Fact File on Raypower FM on Wednesday, November 30,
Shittu said he was not involved in the decision as the news came to him
as a surprise.
“There are reasons for what they have done, the reasons I’m
sure will not be political, the reason will be more of logistics and all
of that and as you have requested me to do I will do that.
“But I want to say that I was not privy to it, I was not party
to it, government never gave any such instruction and the government as
the representative of the people never have done that – that the voice
of Nigerians must be muscled,” he said.
He however assured that Nigerians won’t be held hostage by the telecoms mafia.
“This government came into the democratic process and it has a
duty to continue to protect the interest of Nigerians and I can assure
you, we will do that and we will do the needful in protecting the rights
and privileges of Nigerians.
“Held hostage by a mafia in the telecoms industry and unsolicited text messages and there no sanctions.
“About 6 months ago I had cause to invite all the telecom
operators and virtually read the riot act to them. If that has not been
done I can assure you it will be done, we are concerned about the
interest of Nigerians.
“We are concerned that Nigerians should not be taken for ride
as the Minister of communications I’m also a victim just like every
other Nigerians I also suffer the same fate as telecom operators, so let
me assure you that we will redouble our efforts to curtail the excesses
of the telecom operators,” he said.
It would be recalled that the NCC had directed mobile operators to
initiate a new data tariff regime from December 1, 2016 in what is
effectively a price increase.
This was contained in a letter to mobile operators dated November
1, the regulator stated that the interim floor price for data services
was 0.90k/MB for big operators, and that “this rate will subsist
pending the finalisation of the study on the determination of cost based
pricing for retail broadband and data services in Nigeria”.
“In order to provide a level playing field for all operators in
the industry, small operators and new entrants to acquire market share
and operate profitably small operators and new entrants are hereby
exempted for the price floor for data services,” it said.
“For the avoidance of doubt a small operator is one that has
less than 7.5 percent market share and a new entrant is an operator that
has operated less than three years in the market.
“All operators are to ensure that subscribers are not automatically migrated to pay-as-you-go platform.
“Also, note that effective date for the interim price floor is December 1, 2016.”
No comments:
Post a Comment