Hostile States to Pay More for Phone Calls-Alton

Telecommunications operators and service providers under the aegis of Association of licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (Alton) has threatened to introduce discriminatory tariffs based on tax regimes and operating environments in different states.

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

“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.

Adebayo condemned indiscriminate closure of telecom sites and said that operators had decided not to reopen any site closed down by state governments without a court order.

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

Adebayo said there were laws guiding the telecommunications industry regarding the closure of sites.

He said before a site could be closed by a government, there must be a court order to the effect and a notification to the subscribers that such a disruption of service would happen.

The Alton boss called on Federal Government to classify telecommunication facilities as national security infrastructure.

He said telecoms infrastructure belonged to all Nigerians with service providers as custodians.