GSM users in Nigeria may pay more

Global System of Mobile (GSM) telephone users across the country may pay higer tariffs and this is because the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has threatened to introduce discriminatory tarifffs based on tax regimes and operating environments in differenct states.

Are these people serious. Their services has been so poor and irregular for the past months now and all they are thinking about is increasing tariffs? This can only be happening in Nigeria.

This threat is coming on the heels of the assertion that the Nigeria's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is growing by 30 per cent, second only to China, according to Prof. Cleopas Angaye, Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

According to the chairman of ALTON, Gbenga Adebayo, subscribers in states that were hostile to service providers through tax administration would pay more for telecoms services.

REALLY

"What we are going to do is to adjust the meter so that people making calls from such states pay more than what others are paying." he said.

Mr. Adebayo, during a courtesy visit to the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) chapel in Kwara State, condemned the indiscriminate closure of telecom sites and said that operators had decided not to reopen any site closed down by the state governments without a court order.

"We are not going to beg them, we are going to negotiate with them if they decide to close down a site because the operators refused to pay them." he added.

He called on the Federal Government to classify telecommunication facilities as national security infrastructure.

Mean while, the wife of Primate of All Nigeria Church, Anglican Communion, Mrs Nkasiobi Okoh has called for the Federal Government's intervention over the poor delivery of telecoms services by mobile phone operators.

Make the service reliable first and then talk about increment and not the other way round. Na wa oh.