50% Tariff Hike:  ATCIS Gives Telcos Two Weeks Ultimatum to Improve Service QualityTelcos50% Tariff Hike:  ATCIS Gives Telcos Two Weeks Ultimatum to Improve Service Quality

Emma Okonji

Ahead of the February date slated for commencement of the implementation of the 50 per cent hike in telecoms tariff that was recently approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), telecoms operators have embarked on a recovery process that will lead to improved telecoms services across networks.

Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), who doubles as spokesperson for telecoms operators, Gbenga Adebayo, revealed this to THISDAY, while assuring Nigerians that the tariff increase will go a long way to improve service delivery.

But in spite of the assurance, Association of Telephone, Cable Tv and Internet Subscribers of Nigeria (ATCIS-Nigeria), has given telecoms operators two weeks ultimatum from the date of the tariff hike implementation in February, to achieve significant improvement on service quality, warning that it will return to confront telecoms operators, if services remain the same after two weeks of implementation of the 50 per cent hike in tariff.

National President of ATCIS, Sina Bilesanmi, who gave the warning, told THISDAY that although the association was initially against tariff hike, it later saw reasons why tariff should be increased to at least 50 per cent for the purpose of industry sustainability and to enable telecoms operators offer quality services that subscribers deserve. He however promised that ATCIS would monitor the development on service quality, and would not hesitate to challenge telecoms operators if there is no adequate improvement after two weeks from the date of implementation.

“ATCIS supports the resolution of the meeting with the NCC to increase tariff, but we reject the minister’s speech at the weekend on tariff hike, because he does not have the mandate to increase tariff that will affect telecoms subscribers. We support the 50 per cent tariff increase for economic growth and industry sustainability, because we want telecoms operators to survive the on-going economic reforms in the country. But we are giving operators two weeks to fix whatever it is to be fixed, and offer us quality service” Billesanmi told THISDAY.

Reacting to Bilesanmi’s comment, Adebayo said fixing of the challenges that have lingered for several years cannot be immediate, considering the extent to which telecoms infrastructure has deteriorated and vandalised over the years that telcos have been clamouring for tariff increase.  

Adebayo however assured Nigerians that work has begun and that Nigerians would soon begin to experience quality service delivery across networks.

“I want to thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for considering the situation of the telecoms sector that has gone so bad in the previous years. I want to also thank the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani who is the leader of the industry, for the efforts he made in putting the right information in place, conducting an industry-based sustainability study. I also thank the regulator, the NCC, for staying at the front line in addressing our issues.

“So, what the tariff hike will do for us is that it will bring the industry out of the woods, because really and truly, we were in a bad situation, and the sector was dying gradually. Now that we have this tariff review in place, we need to begin the recovery process that will improve telecoms services.

“We will now start our recovery process as an industry, part of which will be to put at the forefront, customer satisfaction and quality of service. In view of this new development, we need to go back to rebuild, to optimise systems, and then ensure that we deliver services that are best in-class to the subscribers,” Adebayo said.

Asked when subscribers should expect better service quality, Adebayo said it would not be immediate but assured Nigerians that with time, service quality would improve.

But on the contrary, the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) has rejected the 50 per cent hike in tariff, and has threatened to go to court to challenge the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, as well as the NCC over the 50 per cent hike in tariff.

“We had suggested several ways through which operators could raise money, which included a maximum of 10 per cent tariff hike; enforcing banks to pay up the N200 billion debt they are owing telecoms operators through the USSD transactions; enforcing operators that are owing other operators to pay up their connectivity debts; or go to the stock market to raise IPOs to sell their shares to Nigerians. The 50 per cent hike will further impoverish telecoms subscribers, and we have rejected it and we have communicated our lawyers to challenge it in court,” Ogunbanjo said.