No plans to increase tariffs, telcom operators assure Nigerians

Telecommunication operations have ruled out a review of tariffs despite the rising cost of operations.

The Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Gbenga Adebayo gave the assurance on Wednesday.

According to him, telcos are working with other stakeholders to see the best possible way to continue business without reviewing the tariffs.

“There are no such plans; we guarantee that there will be continuous service availability to all citizens in all places at all times,” he said.

“We don’t have plans for tariff reviews. We are consulting with our regulators and others in government to see what kind of sustainability we can have for the industry we have no immediate plans to review public tariffs,” he added.

His comment follows claims in several quarters that the telecom operators are set to increase their rates. He also spoke about the baring of unlinked customers’ lines over their failure to link their SIM cards with the National Identity Number (NIN).

The ALTON boss said since the new directive, there has been a surge in the number of persons trying to link their SIM cards with NIN.

“It has been a lot of pressure at various experience centres, there has also been a lot of pressure on the systems. It has been a lot of concerns expressed by the members of the public to our various contact centres; so it appears the heat is coming to all of us at this time.

“Unfortunately, we have been on this for fourteen months, many people didn’t respond to the call to link their SIM to their NIN and so we are where we are. Certainly, the last 24 hours, has been enormous pressure on at the various experience centre,” he explained. (Channels TV)