BREAKING NEWS, Business
–
The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, wants the Nigerian Communications Commission to allocate free spectrum to small telecom providers to enable them roll out services in underserved areas that will benefit all stakeholders including government and consumers
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Apr 4, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT |
THE Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, is urging the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, to urgently address delays in allocating value added service, VAS, numbering range to operators. Lanre Ajayi, president, ATCON, in his speech during the association’s visit to Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman, NCC, said the non-allocation of VAS was frustrating its members in the industry.
“We would like to bring to your notice the undue delay our members suffer in obtaining Value Added Service (VAS) numbering range. There are cases of some members, licensed for services by NCC, but for more than 1 year are not able to obtain numbering range to commence service. ATCON consider this as a very poor service delivery from NCC and it is unexpected of a regulatory agency that is celebrated as an icon in Africa.”
The association is of the opinion that the Nigerian market is matured enough to have a secondary spectrum market. “Presently, there is large number of idle spectrums in custody of some operators while numerous investors are yearning for spectrum to roll out services. Since it takes a lot of hurdles to retrieve such spectrum from the owners, it makes sense to allow such owners sell to new buyers who may have a need for the spectrum.
“These will benefit everyone concerned. It benefits the seller, who may have challenges in rolling out after the acquisition of the spectrum. It benefits the buyer who now have spectrum to roll out services. It benefits the consumers who are now able to obtain services. It benefits Government who can take in more taxes. However, participation at secondary market should be limited to those who obtained spectrum through competitive bidding, like auction, to avoid a scenario where people use their contact to obtain spectrum from Government and sell in the secondary market.
“As a strategy to attract small operators to un-served and underserved areas, we would like to recommend to NCC to make available some spectrum to operators for free. Big operators are mostly focused on commercial and very productive population centres. Small operators can easily mobilise to service small communities if appropriate incentives are given. Some countries in the world, including the United States, give unlicensed or lite licensed frequencies to operators to attract them to underserved or un-served communities and we would like to recommend this to NCC. This will not only ensure provision of services in those communities but also serve as a great opportunity to create jobs in the communities,” Ajayi said.
The NCC had earlier this month revealed its plans targeted at reviewing the activities of the VAS providers in the country. According to the NCC, in a paper titled ‘Procedures and Guidelines for the Provision of Value Added Services in Nigeria,’ VAS is any network-based service that offers more value than the ordinary voice conversation service, usually at a higher price than normal charges.
NCC, which segmented VAS markets into three, which are VAS developers; VAS Hosting Service Providers and Network Operators, stipulated that while multiple players will be allowed to operate in each segment of the market to ensure adequate competition, companies operating in one segment may be barred from operating in another segment of the market, should it holds effect of eroding competition.
However, those considered as VAS in Nigeria include information services/content such as news, updates, data, quiz, games, ringtones, video streaming, alerts, product information, call centre and database access.
According to the 41-page document, NCC said it has received several complaints from the public in respect of service providers who use short codes assigned for VAS to perpetuate fraud, the menace of unsolicited text messages that flood customers’ phones, fake bank alerts, anti-competitive activities, among others.
According to NCC, consequent upon the above development and the fact that VAS industry is beginning to approach maturity, the commission is of the opinion that it is time to regulate the industry in order to protect, balance and reconcile stakeholders’ interests. NCC warned that all companies involved in VAS provisioning must ensure that information content and applications being offered to the public are free of default, bugs, and inaccuracies.
The commission noted that VAS developer and Hosting Service Provider will be jointly held responsible for any faulty or inaccurate VAS offered to the public and may be compelled to refund buyers if a clear case of negligence is established.
To be a VAS developer, NCC said such a person must be the owner of a unique content or application and will among others have additional responsibilities for the registration of copyright for its VAS/content and its protection against copyright violations and all other related legal issues; obtaining third party authorisation for his content/VAS where required, for example Central Bank of Nigeria license for financial services or lottery commission license; register with the Corporate Affairs Commission as a corporate body.
In the telecommunications industry, on a conceptual level, VAS add value to the standard service offering, spurring the subscriber to use their phone more and allowing the operator to drive up their Average Revenue Per Users, ARPU. For mobile phones, technologies like SMS, MMS, and data access were historically usually considered value-added services, but in recent years SMS, MMS and data access have more and more become core services, and VAS, therefore, has begun to exclude those services.
|
Tags:
