Good news!

After much argument and agitation about Data hike that will start by tomorrow Dec 1,the NCC has suspended it...Read below...


The Nigerian communications Commission (NCC) has
suspended its directive to telecom operators to increase the
price of data tariffs.
This is contained in a statement signed by Tony Ojobo, the
Director of Public Affairs of the NCC.
The statement titled “NCC suspends directive on data
segment price floor” read:
Following the concerns that visited the directive to introduce
price floor for data segment of the telecommunications
sector beginning from December 1, 2016, the Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC) has suspended any
further action in that direction.
The decision to suspend this directive was taken after due
consultation with industry stakeholders and the general
complaints by Consumers across the country.
The Commission has weighed all of this and consequently
asked all operators to maintain the status quo until the
conclusion of study to determine retail prices for broadband
and data services in Nigeria.
Recall that the Commission wrote to the Mobile Network
Operators (MNOs) on November 1, 2016 on the
determination of an interim price floor for data services
after the stakeholder’s consultative meeting of October 19,
2016.
The decision to have a price floor was primarily to promote
a level playing field for all operators in the industry,
encourage small operators and new entrants.
The price floor in 2014 was N3.11k/MB but was removed in
2015. The price floor that was supposed to flag off on
December 1, 2016 was N0.90k/MB.
In taking that decision, the smaller operators were
exempted from the new price regime, by virtue of their
small market share. The decision on the price floor was
taken in order to protect the consumers who are at the
receiving end and save the smaller operators from
predatory services that are likely to suffocate them and push
them into extinction.
The price floor is not an increase in price but a regulatory
safeguard put in place by the telecommunications regulator
to check anti-competitive practices by dominant operators.
This statement clarifies the insinuation in some quarters that
the regulator has fixed prices for data services. This is not
true because the NCC does not fix prices but provides
regulatory guidelines to protect the consumers, deepen
investments and safeguard the industry from imminent
collapse.
Before the new suspended price floor of N0.90k/MB, the
industry average for dominant operators including MTN
Nigeria Communications Limited, EMTS Limited
(Etisalat) and Airtel Nigeria Limited was N0.53k/MB.
Etisalat offered (N0.94k/MB), Airtel (N0.52k/MB), MTN
(N0.45k/MB) and Globacom (N0.21k/MB).
The smaller operators/ new entrants charge the following:
Smile Communications N0.84k/MB, Spectranet N0.58k/
MB and NATCOMS (NTEL) N0.72k/MB.
The NCC as a responsive agency of government takes into
consideration the feelings of the consumers and so decided
to suspend the new price floor.