The Nigeria Communications Commission
(NCC) Tuesday said that it intervened with an interim price floor for
data services to avert a looming price war in the telecommunications
sector.
The explanation of the NCC is coming
even as the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, asked
Nigerians to face reality.
The regulatory commission said that it
feared that the price war could eventually lead to a monopoly in the
telecom industry that would force small operators to shut down.
It said that monopoly in the telecom
sector could also push the country back to the days of NITEL to the
detriment of small operators in the sector.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC,
Professor Umar Dambatta stated this when he appeared before the Senate
Committee on Communications.
The committee was mandated to investigate the proposed hike in the price of data tariff said to have been ordered by the NCC.
Vice Chairman of the Committee, Senator
Solomon Adeola, who presided, noted that there was a public outcry over
the proposed data price increase.
Adeola said that Nigerians were united in their opposition that the proposed increase in the price of data should be stopped.
He said that the position of Nigerians
was that the idea of hike in data price was ill- advised especially with
the biting economic situation in the country.
Professor Dambatta told the committee that the intervention of the NCC was not designed to undermine the consumers.
He noted that if cheap prices were introduced, they may end up undermining the telecom service operators.
He said that if the situation arose where the operators could no longer cope, the consequences could be better imagined.