Telecommunications companies say
they may stop offering Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services
to financial institutions for free.
The companies, under the aegis of
Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said
banks would have to pay for the service if they want to continue receiving it.
According to PUNCH, Gbenga
Adebayo, ALTON chairman, told reporters in Lagos on Wednesday that network
operators incurred costs daily for providing the services.
The telcos, who provide the
platform for the USSD service, had proposed to take a cut of N4.50k per 20
seconds from the charges paid by customers to the banks.
However, the banks kicked against
it, alleging that it would raise cost by 450 percent.
“The USSD is a service we are
providing for the banks and there is a cost incurred by telecom operators for
providing those services,” Adebayo said.
“The bank has given an erroneous
impression to the public that it is a sunk cost and it is not because for the
service to be allowed, the cell site must be powered, there must be
transmission link available and our systems must interconnect with the systems
of the banks. It is a recurring cost other than the initial capital.”
Adebayo said if banks wanted to
get the service for free, they should stop charging telcoms subscribers for it.
“If they think we should not
charge, they also should not charge our subscribers,” he said.
“A time will come when we will
have to invoke our rights under the Communications Act, which allows us to seek
a request to disconnect the link.”
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