Telcos under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications
Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) say they are considering an upward review of
tariffs.
According to the telcos, the development is due to the
rising cost of diesel and its implications for the cost of doing business.
They also said the security situation in the country has
made it unsafe to send out service personnel to some parts of the country,
thereby hampering their operations.
Speaking with TheCable on Thursday night, Gbenga Adebayo,
ALTON chairman, called for government intervention in the telecommunications
sector.
He said unless there is an intervention, operators will have
no choice but to begin a process of price review.
“We will continue to provide services but we are concerned
about the high costs. Without government intervention, we may consider
increasing tariffs to reflect current realities,” Adebayo said.
“We can’t just wake up and increase prices. There are
regulatory procedures that we need to follow to review prices. We may consider
following those steps to commence the process of price review.”
FACE-OFF IN KOGI ‘COULD LEAD TO BLACKOUT’
The ALTON boss expressed concern about the shutting down of
telecommunications facilities by the Kogi State Internal Revenue Service (KIRS)
over tax disputes.
He said the action was hinged on an ex parte court order
obtained by the KIRS over “unsubstantiated allegations” that its members are in
default of tax payments to the state government.
“This issue is likely to lead to a total communications
blackout in the entire Kogi state, parts of Abuja and possibly impact on
service availability in some parts of the following states: Nassarawa, Benue,
Enugu, Anambra, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, and Niger. These are states sharing
borders with Kogi,” Adebayo said.
Adebayo said that as a result of the state government’s
action, the affected telcos were unable to refuel the power generators nor
provide any support or maintenance services at the sites.
“The impact of these outages will gradually spread to the
states mentioned above and if no action is taken within the next few days, a
total outage of telecommunication sites in all these states will be
catastrophically experienced,” he said.
“To the best of our knowledge, our members have settled all
statutory levies and taxes due to the Kogi government and have taken necessary
steps to comply with local laws that govern business activities within the
state.”
INABILITY TO BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE IN FCT
He also said the signage and advertisement office in the
Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) has refused to grant
telecommunication service providers permits to build infrastructure.
This, he said, is affecting the quality of services around
FCT and Abuja.
Adebayo urged the federal executive council (FEC) to prevail
on the FCDA to grant permits for its members to deploy infrastructure.
“ALTON and its members will no longer tolerate
discriminatory charges against the sector,” he said.
“The industry is planning to begin a study on varying
tariffs to some of the unfriendly telecommunications states in other to
accommodate their demand.
“Those states that are requesting for non-statutory levies
and taxes are the ones being subsidised by some viable states.”
Adebayo asked for protection from sub-national governments
and non-interference in the operations of telecom services.
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