Data new price floor regime saga not over yet, says NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said the battle over the new price floor regime for data is not won yet.

Speaking at a Special Media Interaction event held at the Sheraton Hotel and Tower Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria, the NCC Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, Alhaji Abdullahi Maikano said the new price floor regime for data is essentially to provide a level playing field for all operators in the telecoms space, and to encourage small operators and new entrants to acquire market share and operate profitably just so they do not face insolvency.

TheNewsGuru reports the NCC announced the intention to establish the new price floor regime for data in November last year; but the intention was halted by the intervention of the Nigerian Senate.

“Many believe that the Senate must have misread the lines when it asked the regulator to suspend the introduction of the price floor regime.

“The Senate and the NCC are in the public interest. The only difference is that whereas the Senate acted for the immediate satisfaction of the telecoms consumer, the regulator from its commanding height as the driver of the industry acted for the good of the consumer in the long run.

“Besides, the action of the regulators is not just in the interest of the telecoms consumer but also in the interest of the nation,” an article titled “2017: Year of the Telecom Consumer” in the publication of the NCC, The Communicator, read.

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, had told the Senate Committee on Communication that the intervention of the regulatory agency was not designed to undermine the consumers, neither was it also intended to undermine the operators but to find a common ground whereby all stakeholders (operators and consumers) would enjoy the gains of participatory regulation which the regulator is noted for.

“We wanted to protect the Nigerian consumer from unhealthy price war in what may lead to a monopoly that may lead us to the days of NITEL.

“We did not increase any price but merely provided a regulatory standard to protect small operators,” the EVC of the NCC said.

The NCC said, however, that small operators and new entrants are exempted from the new data price floor regime. The NCC defined small operators to mean any operator with less than 7.5 percent of the market share, and defined new entrants as any operator that has operated for less than three years in the Nigerian market.

Meanwhile, telecoms services provider, Globacom Nigeria, has already re-capitalized its data prices. 12GIG that previously goes for N3,000.00 has been reduced to 6GIG for the same amount. All other of GLO data plans, both the 3G and 4G data plans were affected as well.