Nigerian telecom operators have insisted on their plan to block subscriber access to Over-the-Top (OTT) services, including WhatsApp, imo, Skype, Facebook, BlackBerry Messenger, Viber and several others.
The position of the operators is against the backdrop of recent revelation by research and analytics outfit, Ovum, that between 2012 and 2018, Nigeria would have lost US$386 billion to OTT services.
Ovum further noted: “Generally, the main fear of the telecoms operators here will be that customers will increasingly use Skype as a substitute for conventional international calls.”
Operators are reportedly losing international call revenue to OTT services and this is making it difficult for the industry to reach revenue targets.
Telecoms companies claimed the country had lost as much as NGN100 trillion between 2012 and 2017.
They said the losses will continue and will increase year-on-year since more OTT apps are providing voice and video services.
According to them, these services have reduced voice revenues made by telecoms companies in Nigeria by more than half.
Operators have also blamed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for not doing enough to protect them and their investments.
ITWEB AFRICA reports MTN Nigeria’s Public Relations and Protocol Manager, Funsho Aina, as describing OTT services as “cannibalising”
Aina further stated: “OTTs allow users to send unlimited texts, images, video and audio messages free of charge, using their current data plans. They are denying operators of revenue to grow their networks, thereby impacting on service delivery and long-term sustainability. For instance, to date, MTN has invested over $15bn in building its network in Nigeria. You can now imagine an OTT leveraging the network to deliver its content without investing a kobo locally. The impact on revenue is huge.
“Furthermore, because these entities are not licensed, and because they have not built any infrastructure locally, they do not have the same costs as the licensed operators. They do not pay taxes, they do not employ any people locally, and indeed, they have no local presence whatsoever, meaning they do not make any contribution to our economy and their services are denying those who make contributions of income.”
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Nigeria economy is being controlled by the Chinese at the moment therefore, one should expect such happening.
Wonders shall never end! Is Nigeria the only country in the world where OTT services are in use? Who is providing the data services on which OTT ride? These Telcos better up their game to become competitive instead of looking for undeserved protectionism from government. Nigeria is a fledgling IT market that needs encouraging not killed as these greedy Telcos are demanding.
The Telecom and IT industry in Nigeria is metamorphosing with the rest of the world but still far behind. Our Telcos should wake up and seek need opportunities to tap the vast market. As of today, opportunities exist to provide affordable internet access to many homes. Most of the service available are either priced too high or the service is shitty! This huge undeserved data market if explored could be the answer to their woes.
Instead of exploring, Telcos stifle the market with overpriced service and want only the premium market which is close to saturation. So sorry, no protection for you, your answer is in the mass market.