On Monday, January 8, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) announced the partial disconnection of Globacom (GLO) from MTN due to non-payment of interconnect charges. If the owed charges are not repaid within 10 days (by January 17), the directive will be implemented.
Reuben Muoka, the public affairs director at NCC, stated that inbound calls to GLO will still be allowed. “The Commission, having examined the application and circumstances surrounding the indebtedness, determined that Globacom does not have a sufficient or justifiable reason for non-payment of interconnection charges,” Muoka said in a statement seen by Techmoonshot.com.
Nigerian laws empower the telco regulator to intervene in matters concerning interconnection among telecom companies.
Interconnect charges refer to the fees paid by each telecom company for calls terminating on their network. For example, if a call begins on the GLO network and concludes on the MTN network, the amount paid by GLO to MTN for terminating the call is known as interconnect charges or rates.
“Interconnect rates are crucial in the telecommunications industry as they influence what operators charge subscribers. Operators cannot charge less than the interconnect rate, regardless of their operational efficiency,” explains Everest Amaefule, a telecom expert.
The interconnect debt dispute between MTN and GLO is not recent. In December 2018, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) sanctioned the disconnection of eight Nigerian telcos, including GLO, due to their failure to settle interconnect and facility charges. A year later, in August 2019, MTN reportedly received ₦2.6 billion as a partial payment for the interconnect debt owed by GLO.
Four years later, GLO continues to default on interconnect charges. Despite previous suggestions for an automatic deduction system, it remains unimplemented. Olusola Teniola, former president of the Association of Licensed Telcoms Operators in Nigeria (ALTON), urges the government to adopt an automatic clearing system for settling charges between different networks.
Until such a solution is implemented, users will endure the consequences of ongoing service disconnections among telecom providers.
As of August 2023, Nigeria had over 220 million active mobile subscribers. GLO held a 27.91% market share, ranking second after MTN, the dominant provider with 38.52% market share.
