Abuja, Nov. 26, 2024 – The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is planning to streamline tariff plans of telecom operators to check customers’ confusion due the current multiple tariff plans of the operators.
Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, the NCC Director of Public Affairs, disclosed this in Lagos at a two-day workshop on the current trends in the telecom industry organised for journalists.
He said research had shown that there were lots of confusion in the sector about the actual charges associated with each tariff plan.
“The proliferation of tariff plans has made it difficult for subscribers to select the best option, as the differences between some plans are often not clear,” he said.
According to the NCC, the four major mobile network operators in the country, MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile, are currently offering a combined total of 267 tariff plans for both voice and data services.
MTN, the largest operator, has 159 tariff plans (14 for voice and 145 for data); Airtel offers 68 plans (27 for voice and 41 for data); Globacom provides 38 plans (6 for voice and 32 for data) and 9mobile has 104 plans (7 for voice and 97 for data).
Adinde said many of these tariff plans were initially presented as promos, but were subsequently converted into tariff plans which presented pricing uncertainty and diversity of plans.
He said in some cases, operators applied different effective tariffs to bonus accounts resulting in different tariffs for the main account and bonus account.
The NCC director said regrettably this information is not well communicated to consumers which had led many customers to make uninformed decisions.
He said the streamlining of the tariff plans would bring about seven tariff plans, especially on data services.
Adinde said the simplification of the plans would in turn engender better consumer understanding as well as enhance overall quality of service.
He said “the goal is to provide consumers with a good experience as too many tariff plans dilute the quality of service.” (GBN)
