Etisalat, NCC’s legal suit over ‘anti-competition’ stirs telecoms industry

Etisalat Nigeria is accusing the regulators of anti-competition policies. Etisalat has dragged the NCC before a Federal High Court in Lagos for alleged anti-competition policy in favour of MTN Nigeria, a co-operator. MTN Nigeria is joined in the suit.Industry watchers are wondering how a service provider is able to muster the confidence to take its […]

Etisalat Nigeria is accusing the regulators of anti-competition policies. Etisalat has dragged the NCC before a Federal High Court in Lagos for alleged anti-competition policy in favour of MTN Nigeria, a co-operator. MTN Nigeria is joined in the suit.
Industry watchers are wondering how a service provider is able to muster the confidence to take its regulator to court.
In 2012, following a study on Determination of Dominance in Selected Communications Markets in Nigeria, the NCC ruled that MTN was the dominant operator in the retail mobile voice market segment of the telecommunication industry in Nigeria. It achieved this with a wide differential rate of up to 300 per cent between its on-net and off-net retail voice tariff, which was not favourable to other service providers.
NCC had directed MTN not to operate with any differential between its on-net and off-net tariffs because such would substantially reduce the competitive capacity of other telecommunication service providers in the country.
However, that directive was reversed before the 2015 elections with no explanations from NCC. Etisalat feels there was no any form of consultations with industry players and that move gave the dominant operator, MTN, concessions which were contrary to the directives of the NCC’s guidelines on dominance.
Etisalat is contending that MTN’s ‘Family and Friends’ promo, which offers a call rate of 11 kobo per second to eight MTN subscribers and two non-MTN subscribers, is posing a threat to its business survival.
Etisalat said it wrote several letters, including one dated February 28, 2015 to NCC to complain but the commission refused and failed to compel MTN to immediately withdraw the ‘Family and Friends’ tariff option. However, the NCC in a letter dated April 14, 2015 informed Etisalat that it had given MTN 30 per cent differential in on-net and off-net tariffs.
The CEO of Etisalat Nigeria, Matthew Willsher at the 2015 Commonwealth Broadband Forum in Abuja recently had lamented that a bulk of the revenue in the sector was cornered by one operator while other service providers struggle to survive.
Etisalat Nigeria hinged it’s suit on the above grounds which it described as favourable to MTN and poses threat to its survival if not reversed.
The suit is seeking legal redress against NCC for acting against its regulatory framework in the interest of an operator at expense of others who have also invested heavily to grow the sector.
This Etisalat said would not allow the healthy competition within the telecommunications industry in Nigeria to be sustained.
According to Etisalat, seeking judicial review is considered the best option and to also show that it has facts to prove it’s points.