ATCON proffers ways to address indebtedness in telecom sector

The President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Olusola Teniola.

By Chike Onwuegbuchi
Following the publication of notices by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to have some networks disconnected for inability to settle interconnect and infrastructure debts key stakeholders in the industry have indicated that this is not the best solution available to the regulator to resolve this industry crisis. Noting that the issue of indebtedness has built over the past 15 years and previous attempts to use disconnection of networks as the solution to this problem has not worked, Olusola Teniola the President of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), called for the full implementation of an automated settlement scheme for the telecom industry in Nigeria as the way out of this situation.
Under an automated settlement scheme which ATCON had endorsed when it was called upon by the NCC to proffer a solution to the rising debt profile in the telecom space some months ago, all operators will be made to set aside a percentage of the their daily recharge card sales into a settlement account to be used every month to handle their interconnect and facility obligations.
That will ensure that every month there is an automated payment of all interconnects and facility charges that are due. For operators with legacy debts, they will be made to put aside a higher percentage to deal with the legacy debts until paid off.
This way within a period of no more than 12 months all legacy debts are cleared with no new debts being added. This represents the sure way to get the industry out of this predicament. This is possible because 98% of the services taken by subscribers are prepaid.
The originating network should have the money before the service is used. They have the means to pay using the current and future earnings on the network.Speaking in similar vein an industry expert who would not want to be named given the sensitive nature of the issue at stake wondered why NCC is using what would be tantamount to bandaging the wound versus actually applying real medication.
He stated that this issue has plagued the industry for too long and going by the past experience disconnection of networks only ended up reducing the number of service providers in the country while not guaranteeing the at the operators being owed will get their money. These operators are still in business so they have the means to pay if a proper framework to collect the payments is in place. That is what the industry efforts should be centered around.
When contacted, one of the interconnect exchange operators affected by the NCC publication wondered why the NCC would list them for disconnection when there is no evidence to show they have been paid by the network operators that passed the traffic.He stated that the interconnect operators don’t collect money from subscribers and it is only when they have been paid by the originating network, that payment can be made to the terminating network. In his words, we have explained and presented evidence to the NCC that we have not been paid by the originating networks.
We are also being owed our portion of the transit fee. We are being owed hundreds of millions of naira by the telecom operators. All we have been told by the NCC is to also initiate a disconnection process to have operators owing us disconnected also.However this does not solve our problem since it does not guarantee we will ever be paid. We are simple being punished by the NCC for doing our job and now it appears they want us not to be paid at all. This is a sad development for the telecom industry in Nigeria.