NCC suspension over, MTN can now review tariff plans

MTN Nigeria on Tuesday confirmed that it had received permission of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to either raise or reduce its tariff plans.

In a statement obtained by TheCable, MTN group said NCC lifted suspension on regulatory services, which was imposed in October 2015.

“We refer to our SENS announcement dated 3 March 2016 where we noted that regulatory services to MTN Nigeria had been suspended by the Nigeria Communciations Commission (NCC) in October 2015,” MTN said.

“Shareholders are advised that the NCC has lifted the suspension on regulatory services to MTN Nigeria effective immediately.

“This restoration of regulatory services will enable MTN Nigeria to pursue the necessary approvals, in accordance with the NCC regulatory process, for new tariff plans and promotions, as well as other regulatory matters.”

NCC also confirmed the development, saying the sanctions were for “24 identified infractions, which are not in any way connected with the SIM Card non-deactivation fine”.

“These were a number of violations discovered by the compliance monitoring and enforcement team of the commission in June 2015,” Tony Ojobo, NCC spokeman, said on Tuesday.

“Consequent of the inability of MTN to make good those violations, the relevant sanctions for these sanctions were invoked.

“Consequent upon the remediation of the 24 infractions by MTN, the Commission’s letter of 14/3/16 informed the Company of its decision to lift the Regulatory sanction.”

MTN, the largest telecommunications company in Nigeria, had initially introduced a new tariff plan in May 2015, leading to sanctions from NCC.

NCC, in a letter dated May 19, 2015, claimed that MTN had no approval of the regulatory authority before embarking on the new tariff plan, which charged a daily access fee of N5, while allowing subscribers to call all networks at 11k/sec and N20k/sec to UK, USA, India, Canada and China.

NCC said MTN contravened Section 108 (1) of the Nigeria Communications Act 2003, and directed the telco to “immediately discontinue this Tariff Plan and all associated advertisements”.

By October 2015, the NCC, in its quarterly compliance enforcement report, said: “Out of the six sanctions imposed on operators for various acts on non-compliance, MTN was involved and sanctioned for four separate infractions.”

Infractions relating to sim registration were also recorded in the report, leading to the suspension of regulatory services to MTN Nigerian and an imposition of a N1.04 trillion naira fine.

After bouts of negotiation and legal cases, MTN says it is willing to pay $1.5 billion of the $3.9 billion fine.