Expert Calls for Regulatory Polices to Protect Smaller Telecom Operators
Emma Okonji
Ayoola Oke, a former Special Assistant to the former Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, has raised the alarm that over 90 per cent of home grown telecom operators may go into extinction within the next five years, if appropriate measures are not put in place.
He therefore called for strict regulatory policies that would protect smaller and home grown telecom operators from going into extinction.
Oke, an Information and Communications (ICT) Legal and Regulatory expert, spoke to newsmen in Lagos recently, about the issues affecting local telecom operators and raised the issue of how the bigger telecom operators are driving smaller operators out of business, insisting that should such development continued unabated, it might likely force smaller telecom operators out of business in the next five years.
Oke described the industry as sub-divided into three tiers: Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3. According to him, the Tier 1 operators are the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), such as MTN, Globacom, Airtel, 9mobile and ntel, while the Tier 3 operators are the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Spectranet PNLs, Swift Telephone Networks, Rainbownet and the International Data Access Service Providers.
He however said almost all the Tier 2 operators like Starcomms, Intercellular, Mobitel, MTS First Wireless, that were active and vibrant 14 years ago are now dead or struggling, leaving the Tier 2 space almost empty, noting that Tier 1 operators are currently faced with little or no competition, and as such, not ready to improve on their networks.
He said none of the local operators in Tier 2 space have been able to grow to become Tier 3 operators because they are dying gradually adding that the country would soon be left with only the Tier 1 operators who will operate a monopolist market, which he said, would be detrimental to the growth of the telecom sector, if the home grown operators eventually die out.
The Former Special Assistant cited the instance of bigger operators asking smaller operators to pay for termination rate in dollars rather than the country’s legal tender which is the naira and consequently leading to their disconnection.
“It is not a prophesy. If certain regulatory steps are not taken and things not done the way it should, more than 90 per cent of home grown local telecom operators will probably all die out in the next five years and that will be terrible for the country and consumers.From the way the industry is structured now, the bigger operators are suffocating the industry,” Oke said.
