Data
By Constance Imasuen
Abuja, June 14, 2018 (NAN) Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) says its members are ready to comply with Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)’s directive on data rollover but urges speedy completion of study on data pricing.
Mr Olusola Teniola, the President of ATCON told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja that the study when completed would assist the operators to get accurate data pricing.
NAN reports that NCC initiated a study to develop a model to determine retail prices of broadband and data services to make the services accessible and affordable to Nigerians.
“Appropriate data pricing will help to determine wholesale costs and retail pricing of data,’’ he said.
Teniola said ATCON was working with NCC in any directive that it would actually make “the consumer is king’’.
“So the plea to NCC is to hasten the study on the determination of wholesale cost and retail pricing for data.
“We will like NCC to assist us in getting the right data pricing so that our members will not feel the stress of the rollover, especially on our profit.
“So we need to ensure that our members survive not only the bigger operators but also the smaller ones,’’ he said
Teniola said ATCON would implement NCC directive on data rollover, adding that data revenue in the industry had not replaced the lost revenue in voice calls that members were encountering.
According to him, data pricing is not the appropriate best way to replace the loss of the voice revenue that we have lost to “over the top’’ players.
He said the issue on whether data had been exhausted or not was a commercial one to the operators.
“And we know that the view of the commission is to ensure that consumers are able to utilise their data in the most efficient manner.
`Therefore the stand of the commission to allow 15 days to rollover data is a compromise because we know that in other climes it is also being implemented,’’ he said.
NAN reports that NCC recently directed operators in the telecommunication industry to begin data rollover from June 26.
This implies that telecom operators must henceforth add a subscriber’s unused or unfinished data to his/her new or next data subscription.
Before this new directive from the NCC, subscribers’ unfinished or unused data subscription automatically became useless as soon as it hit the expiry date. (NAN)
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Edited by Grace Yussuf