Nigeria suspends plan to introduce telecom price floor

Nigerian authorities on Wednesday said a plan to introduce price floor for data segment of the country's telecommunication sector has been suspended.

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the country's telecoms regulator, had planned to introduce an interim price floor for data services beginning from Dec. 1.

In a statement made available to Xinhua, the regulatory body said it made the decision after another consultation with industry stakeholders and due to complaints by consumers across the country.

Nigerian netizens had complained bitterly about the NCC's decision to introduce the price floor, with the view that the development would cause a huge tariff on internet data usage and an impediment on their daily activities.

According to the statement, the decision to have a price floor was primarily to promote a level playing field for all operators in the industry, encourage small operators and new entrants.

The statement said the decision was also taken in order to protect the consumers at the receiving end and save the smaller operators from predatory services.

"The price floor is not an increase in price but a regulatory safeguard put in place by the telecommunications regulator to check anti-competitive practices by dominant operators," the statement added.

Contrary to this claim, however, some telecoms operators in the country had already increased the price of their Internet data services by 300 percent ahead of Dec. 1, causing the outburst by internet data users in the country.

An estimated 100 million users are subscribed to Nigeria's telecoms networks, according to statistics by the NCC. Endit