Umar Danbatta is urging telecom operators to re-examine their business model to boost alternative sources for revenue generation

THE Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, is calling on telecom operators, telecos, and industry stakeholders to  unify their mechanism to serve as alternative source of revenue and boost their financial capacities.

Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman, NCC, said the re-examination of telecos current business model should also be done to break new grounds.  He said the operators should begin to work closely with vendors and other stakeholders in the value chain in figuring out new models that best serve their mutual interest while delivering maximum value to customers.

At the Vanguard Economy Forum in Lagos, Danbatta said: “Telcos need to re-examine their business model and break new grounds. They should move from providers of connectivity to facilitating and creating content which can be passed through the Value Added Service, VAS, aggregator.

“They should continue to stretch the boundaries of what current revenue models allow and consider starting exploring Business-to-Business-to-Customer (B2B2C) models, which seems to be where the future is going as against the B2B and B2C models of today,” he said.

Represented by Bako Wakil, head, Technical Standards and network integrity, NCC, he emphasised the need for telcos and vendors to continue to utilise their core assets such as the ability to implement complex Information Technology, IT, systems and connectivity in order to provide ecosystem to other sectors.

He urged the regulator to be innovative and put all industry players in the telecom system on equal pedestal.

Telcos and other players in the Information and Communications a Technology, ICT, ecosystem need to constantly challenge their business model and the notions of the role in the ecosystem if they are to truly innovate new business models. Agility must be their watchword. Vendors must exert effort to assist Telcos to come up with Win-win business models with other players in the value chain, as success in such ventures will mean increase in data traffic going through the Telco network.

“This translates into more business for the vendors. At the end of the day, the innovative partnership of all players in the telecommunications ecosystem will result in a win-win solution for all.”

– May 3, 2019 @ 13:55 GMT |