S
Staff Writer
Guest
The four major Nigerian telecommunications companies, MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9Mobile have a combined 267 tariff plans. This was revealed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) through its research on the complaints of subscribers concerning data depletion.
According to the commission, these plans are mostly geared towards promotions on their platforms, in a bid to lure or retain their customers.
Breaking down the outcome of the NCC’s research at an event in Lagos, the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, said MTN alone is responsible for a majority of the total, claiming 159 of them. This includes 14 for voice and 145 for data.
Airtel, Nigeria’s second-largest telco, has 27 for voice and 41 for data services, bringing its total tariff plans to 68. Globacom has six tariff plans for voice and 32 for data, while 9mobile has seven different tariff plans for voice and 97 for data.
Nigerian telcos
Dr Adinde, in his analysis, said majority of the telecoms subscribers did not know the actual tariffs charged by their network providers. As such, the numerous tariff plans have been giving them headaches, keeping them in a dilemma about which tariff plan to choose to get value for their money.
The director noted that most times, several of these plans look so similar that subscribers are not able to tell the difference between them. This has made it difficult for many of these subscribers to select the best plans that suit them.
This proliferation of tariff plans had been creating severe uncertainty for the users and affecting their quality of experience (QoE), something the commission has always advocated for.
As such, Adinde said the Commission is going to streamline the various plans and reduce them to just seven for better understanding of the consumers and to enhance the quality of experience.
“The whole idea is to ensure that consumers have a good experience, because too many tariff plans affect the quality of service – all benefits or allowances, voice, SMS and data must be seated in clear, useful and user friendly formats,” he said.
The director emphasized on transparency, insisting that the currently available tariff plans do not offer the kind of transparency many users are passionate about.
“I was able to state how much this time you use per session. Every time you use maybe five minutes on YouTube, two minutes of maybe Netflix, three minutes of Facebook experience, and all of that,” he said.
So this new data says how much per second for SMS, for voice and for data. Now on the other side, the Commission will then publish approved times on the Commission’s websites.
We’re going to do this correctly. So under this simplification regime, approved times across all records. So when you go to our website, you will see the tariff plans for voice and for data across the different levels.
See also: Bolt Nigeria blocked 5,000 drivers in 2023, insists on driver score feature despite AUATON’s demand
According to the commission, these plans are mostly geared towards promotions on their platforms, in a bid to lure or retain their customers.
Breaking down the outcome of the NCC’s research at an event in Lagos, the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, said MTN alone is responsible for a majority of the total, claiming 159 of them. This includes 14 for voice and 145 for data.
Airtel, Nigeria’s second-largest telco, has 27 for voice and 41 for data services, bringing its total tariff plans to 68. Globacom has six tariff plans for voice and 32 for data, while 9mobile has seven different tariff plans for voice and 97 for data.
Nigerian telcos
Too many tariff plans a source of confusion for subscribers
Dr Adinde, in his analysis, said majority of the telecoms subscribers did not know the actual tariffs charged by their network providers. As such, the numerous tariff plans have been giving them headaches, keeping them in a dilemma about which tariff plan to choose to get value for their money.
The director noted that most times, several of these plans look so similar that subscribers are not able to tell the difference between them. This has made it difficult for many of these subscribers to select the best plans that suit them.
This proliferation of tariff plans had been creating severe uncertainty for the users and affecting their quality of experience (QoE), something the commission has always advocated for.
As such, Adinde said the Commission is going to streamline the various plans and reduce them to just seven for better understanding of the consumers and to enhance the quality of experience.
“The whole idea is to ensure that consumers have a good experience, because too many tariff plans affect the quality of service – all benefits or allowances, voice, SMS and data must be seated in clear, useful and user friendly formats,” he said.
The director emphasized on transparency, insisting that the currently available tariff plans do not offer the kind of transparency many users are passionate about.
“I was able to state how much this time you use per session. Every time you use maybe five minutes on YouTube, two minutes of maybe Netflix, three minutes of Facebook experience, and all of that,” he said.
So this new data says how much per second for SMS, for voice and for data. Now on the other side, the Commission will then publish approved times on the Commission’s websites.
We’re going to do this correctly. So under this simplification regime, approved times across all records. So when you go to our website, you will see the tariff plans for voice and for data across the different levels.
See also: Bolt Nigeria blocked 5,000 drivers in 2023, insists on driver score feature despite AUATON’s demand