MTN Nigeria has been given permission by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to disconnect a number of value added service (VAS) providers that have not paid their interconnect debts.
According to The Guardian, these debts run into hundreds of
millions of naira (one naira = US$.002). The NCC list of companies liable
include Polo Solutions Projects Limited; BreezeMicro Limited; Exchange Telecoms
Limited; Information Connectivity Solutions Limited; Sleekchip Technologies Limited;
Alpha Technologies Limited; and Western Microlink Communications Limited.
In accordance with NCC Guidelines on Procedure for Granting
Approval to Disconnect Telecommunications Operators, the affected licensees had
been notified of the application and allowed to respond.
However, a statement released by the NCC says: “The
commission, having examined the application and circumstances surrounding the
indebtedness, determined that the affected licensees do not have sufficient and
or any justifiable reason for non-payment of the international interconnect
charges and therefore decided to grant approval as requested.” Thus MTN will
cease receiving international voice calls and data from the listed licensees.
This isn’t a new problem. In 2019, interconnect debt
affecting the Nigerian telecommunications industry was put at about 165 billion
naira (some US$358 million now but possibly closer to US$544 million at the
time). MTN was owed about 45% of these debts, mainly by VAS providers, vendors
and other operators.
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