Nigeria’s leading telecommunications companies, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and Airtel Nigeria, have increased their prices for internet data services by about 10 per cent.
The companies did the increment quietly but later confirmed it on their social media handles when customers queried them over increased charges.
MTN’s customer, Fatimoh Akinlaja, tweeting with @AkinlajaFatimoh, took to Twitter to openly query why she was charged N3,300 instead of the usual N3000 for 10GB data plan.
He wrote: “This isn’t about usage, I said I was charged 3,300 instead of 3,000 for 10GB data plan”.
To this, MTN Nigeria Support, tweeting with @MTN180: “Y’ello. Apologies for the data price review. Please note that there has been a revamp in prices of some MTN data plans. You may visit https://mtn.ng/personal/data/data-plans/ for more information on MTN data plans. Thank you. ~AO”
Airtel customers also told Microsecondnews that they have received similar messages from their operator.
It would be recalled that the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria had proposed a 40 per cent increment in the charges for telecom services.
In a letter to the Nigerian Communications Commission, the telecom companies had said that there had been a 40 per cent increase in the cost of doing business in the nation, which necessitated the proposed increase in services.
The letter read, “Given the state of the economy and the circa 40 per cent increase in the cost of doing business, we wish to request for an interim administrative review of the mobile (voice) termination rate for voice; administrative data floor price, and cost of SMS as reflected in extant instruments.”
The industry regulator responded that there was a need to follow certain processes before an increase could be approved.
The 10 per cent hike in data prices by MTN and Airtel is still significantly lower than the increment that ALTON is asking for.
It is expected that other major telecom operators will follow the examples of these two major operators in the days ahead.
