NCC intervenes in interconnect debt war between telcos

...service disruption persists with no clear date for debt settlement

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reassured the over 174 million telecoms consumers of their protection from suffering any service disruption as a result of the ongoing regulatory intervention towards resolving the rising interconnectivity debts among telecoms operators in Nigeria. The Commission also called on debtor operators to settle interconnect debts owed their creditor networks without further delay to prevent possible revenue drop and customer flight from their networks to competitors. Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice chairman of NCC, who stated this in Abuja, said as a consumer-centric regulatory authority, the NCC was keen on ensuring that the consumers continue to enjoy uninterrupted service while efforts were being made to address the issue of indebtedness in the industry. The issue of interconnection is a matter that the Commission is handling

delicately within the purview of the regulatory provisions to protect consumers by ensuring that their quality of experience (QOE) is not acutely affected, Danbatta stated. The EVC said while regulatory approval on permission for disconnection was granted to creditor networks late last year, as a last resort towards resolving the huge interconnection debts threatening the health and sustainability of the industry, the Commission is ensuring

that no telecoms subscriber is disconnected. “Though the Commission granted approval to MTN’S request to disconnect debtor networks from its network in line with Section 100 of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003, the

Guidelines on Procedure for Granting Approval to Disconnect Telecommunications Operators, 2012 and other regulatory instruments, what is happening now is that the creditor networks are restricting certain services to their debtor networks in form of one-way disconnection.