. Cost of Data Down by 50% Since January
. Airtel Refunding Subscribers N100m SMS Surcharge
The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Danbatta has disclosed to SILICON NIGERIA that the Commission will soon unveil its next Strategic Vision Plan 2020-2025.
In an exclusive interview with the online tech medium, after receiving the ZIK Prize for Business Leadership, he said the Strategic Vision Plan (SVP), an action plan peculiar to the NCC, was designed to span a period of over five years (2015-2020).
“We are working on the next plan, Strategic Vision Plan II, which has some of the items from the first plan. The first step we are taking is to unveil another plan that will guide us going forward for the next five years (2021- 2025). One of the things we were able to accomplish was broadband penetration, where we surpassed 30 per cent penetration.
“There are so many things to be done in the sector. If there is no plan, we may not be able to do those things we planned for the sector. 2021 will see the unveiling of the SVP II, we shall invite all the critical stakeholders for their contributions.
“So, lots of activities will be implemented in the New Year to transform the digital economy agenda of the federal government. NCC, in 2021 will be very important to the country’s digital agenda,” he said.
The EVC speaking further on the award said, “I was honoured with the ZIK Prize award in the professional leadership category. The reasons I was considered for the award, according to the organisers, was that we at the Commission have succeeded in raising the bar in the telecommunications industry.
“They said we have been able to raise broadband penetration from about six per cent in 2015 to 45.93 per cent as at October 2020. They talked about how we have empowered the telecoms consumers. They noted our efforts on protection of the consumers against unsolicited short message service (SMS), providing them a toll free number they can used to complain. So, when services are being provided to over 207 million subscribers, of course, complaints are expected.
“In fact, they are normal. We however, have an excellent consumer resolution mechanism in place, which is working well. The response time to complaints can be shorter, like the 622 number is on 24 hours to resolve issues. The ZIK Prize for Leadership has made me more humble, it is dedicated to the telecommunications sector, subscribers, the management and board of NCC, and the media. They have all played huge roles in these last six years.
“I also acknowledge the confidence reposed on me by President Muhammadu Buhari, who appointed me in 2015, and re-appointed me in 2020 after a strong recommendation by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami. So, recognition of this nature comes with a lot of expectations.
“It calls for more responsibilities, dedication, and commitment to the service of the country, and Nigerians, who have shown remarkable confidence in what we are doping despite the challenges. From about 100 million subscribers in 2015 to over 200 million now, it shows that on daily basis, Nigerians are subscribing to telecoms services. And, I think there are expectations from telecoms subscribers, they want to get value for money.
“They want the NCC to address the issue of data depletion. We have seen data prices coming down reasonably well. We have done a benchmark, and found out that the cost of one gigabyte of data has come down to about N500, which is more than 50 per cent at the beginning of 2020. Remember, we have a target of N390 to one gigabit by the year 2025, and we are almost there. The N390 is what is in the New National Broadband Plan, NNBP 2020- 2025. We need to do a cost-based study because it is much more scientific.
“This is a good sign, and I am sure, many subscribers of data services will appreciate it. However, this reduction in data cost by about 50 per cent, has not addressed the issue of depletion. So, we need to put up another measure to get to the bottom of data depletion. The NCC is going to take a strong regulatory action to ensure that subscribers to data services are not shortchanged. We have instituted forensic audit of data, in the same way we conducted audit on the cost of SMS.
“We conducted an audit on Airtel which showed that subscribers were unlawfully surcharged to the tune of about N100 million. We wrote to Airtel and they making refunds to subscribers, they admitted there was a mistake, and they are working on it. The NCC is extending the audit on SMS from Airtel to other mobile network operators (MNOs). But more than this audit on SMS, we are going to administer the audit on data.
“We believe that by the time this audit is completed, perhaps that will give us comprehensive view of what is happening in the data sub-sector. I am looking up to the time I will be able to address Nigerians that data prices and depletion challenges have been resolved,” he added.
