Etisalat drags MTN to court over voice tariffs

isaac

July 23, 2015 6:03 PM

Two telecoms giants in the country, Etisalat and MTN are at daggers drawn and have dragged themselves to the court.

MTN at war with Etisalat

Etisalat Nigeria, the newest entrant into the country's telecommunications market, has dragged MTN Nigeria to court over a promotion it claims they are infringing upon.

In the main suit, Etisalat is seeking a review of a decision said to be recently taken by NCC, allowing 30 per cent differential between MTN’s off-net and on-net retail mobile voice tariffs.

According to Etisalat, with the said 30 per cent differential between its off-net and on-net retail mobile voice tariffs, MTN had been able to create what is called a “calling club,” an example of which is its ‘Family and Friends’ promo.

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.

It explained that the ‘Family and Friends’ promo, which it claimed was launched in violation of NCC’s regulation, had aided MTN to leverage on its size to restrict outgoing traffic to smaller operators by pricing on-net tariffs lower so as to make off-net calls unattractive.

Etisalat also claimed that this 30 per cent differential in on-net and off-net retail mobile voice tariffs, granted MTN by NCC, was a breach of NCC’s regulation tagged the Determination of Dominance in Selected Communications Markets in Nigeria.

isaac