Data Prices, Airtime Tariff Set To Rise, As MTN, Airtel, Others Review Costs

MTN Nigeria, Airtel Africa and other telecommunications companies under the telco group, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), have revealed they are planning to increase prices of data and call tariffs.

The network providers said they can’t afford to bear the burden of the increase in fuel price and the proposed 40 per cent hike in electricity tariff by the Distribution Companies (DisCos) at the current prices their services are offered to customers in Nigeria. 

This was disclosed by ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, who stated that their cost of operation has been driven up by the removal of fuel subsidy which bumped the pump price to over N500, from N189 per litre.

Adebayo supported the network providers’ plan to raise the prices of data and call tariffs by stating, “All these changes have had impacts on our industry. You know as an industry, these are parameters that affect the cost of the services we offer, I mean our production cost and when production costs go up, end user prices too go up. 

“So, if its gets to that stage, naturally we will also respond to the trend of that issue expectedly because for the industry to be sustaining, prices have to reflect the cost of production,” he told The Nation Newspaper on Tuesday. 

He explained that the increase in the cost of production must reflect in the prices of their services for the telecommunications industry to remain sustainable, “So, if its gets to that stage, naturally we will also respond to the trend of that issue expectedly because for the industry to be sustaining, prices have to reflect the cost of production,” Adebayo said. 

The head of ALTON further stated: “For the sustainability of the industry, the tariff we charge the consumers will reflect the cost of production, in this case the cost of energy, cost of fuel, cost of diesel, cost of transport. So, expectedly, prices are meant to go up.”

Adebayo disclosed that the members of ALTON, which includes MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Airtel Africa, 9mobile and Spectranet, are reviewing the prices of their services with the industry’s regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

“What we are doing at the moment is that we are working with the regulator to follow the guideline on tariff review,” he stated.