JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has ordered the state-owned telecommunications network operator Nigeria Telecommunications (Nitel) to pay MTN and Econet Wireless more than US$7.9 million as outstanding debts to the GSM operators on traffic from Nitel landlines to the mobile networks.
The directive has added a new dimension to the battle over the interconnection as the NCC has insisted that Nitel abide by the ruling.
Dr. Haliru Bello, the Nigerian minister of communications, said it is not the intention of the government to interfere with the NCC as far as the regulation of the industry is concerned. The minister also emphasized the importance of all operators obeying the NCC directives when performing their statutory functions.
Ganiyi Adegbuji, Nitel’s chief executive, said the network had already developed a plan to pay 80 percent of the debt, but the remaining 20 percent should be discounted due to discrepancies in the traffic figures.
Nitel has reportedly written to the minister complaining that MTN and Econet were not complying with the terms of an agreement reached at a meeting with the NCC last week. Nitel added that despite opening its network, the other operators violated the agreement by not allowing subscribers on their networks to reach Nitel subscribers.
