MTN, Glo Nigeria in tug of war over interconnect fees

Nigeria’s telecoms regulator has approved the partial disconnection of Globacom from MTN Nigeria because Globacom owes about ₦6 billion ($6.7 million) in interconnect fees.

But Glo is disputing the charge saying it does not owe MTN.

Per a tweet by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), the disconnection will be implemented in eight days if Glo does not make good on its payments.

Interconnect fees occurs when, for instance, a call originates from Glo and terminates on MTN then Glo would have to pay MTN for terminating the call on its network. Same thing happens the other way round.

If a partial disconnection eventually happens, Glo’s 61.39 million subscribers will be unable to call MTN users. However, MTN users will still be able to reach Glo users.

Glo now has eight days to make good on those payments. The telco will also need to pay up on its annual operating levy, which it reportedly owes to the NCC.

Glo responds

But Glo has refuted the NCC’s claims saying it has completed honoured its regulatory obligations to MTN.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a reliable source at Glo said the disputed N1.6 billion had been paid.

This contradicts a public pre-disconnection notice on NCCs’s Twitter page on Monday, January 8, signed by Director of Public Affairs Reuben Muoka, which cited Glo’s repeated failure to settle outstanding debts despite attempts at resolution

It stated that after reviewing the application and the circumstances relating to the indebtedness, Globacom lacked the significant or justifiable reasons for failing to pay the interconnect charges.

Ghana

In Ghana, Glo owed interconnect fees to all the telcos before it checked out of the country. It is not clear if AT Ghana and Vodafone Ghana also owes MTN Ghana interconnect fees, but two years ago, the industry regulator in Ghana implemented an intervention that reduced their burden to MTN by 30%.

Source:techfocus24