NCC Withdraws ‘Data Floor Price’ for Telecoms, Warns Against Abuse

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it has withdrawn the “data floor price’’ for operators in the telecommunications industry and said that the move was in a bid to ensure sustainability, growth and development of the data service market segment

“Floor price’’ is a government or group-imposed price control or the limit a price can be charged for a product to check unhealthy rivalry among players.

In a statement in Lagos on Monday, the Commission said that “However, the commission will restore the floor price if any distortion is observed within the market segment,’’ it said.

With the withdrawal of the price, telecommunications industry now has the permission of NCC to charge subscribers lower than the set lowest industry prices.

The regulatory body had in May 2013 imposed a price floor on telecommunications operators in the country as a means of controlling anti-competitive behaviours by operators considered to have attained the dominant status in the industry.

Such anti-competitive behaviours include charging calls within their networks much lower than what they charged for calls terminating on other networks.

With this, the operators might just be setting up calling clubs – a practice where subscribers just call those within the network of their own service providers.