The Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), has again stressed the need for the creation of Interconnect settlement scheme for the country’s telecom industry. The call is coming on the heel of a reported N10 billion interconnect dispute between MTN and Globacom, two of Nigeria’s biggest Mobile Network Operators.
Reports emerged during the weekend that MTN activated a partial restriction of call termination from the Globacom network, claiming that Globacom owed it over N7 billion in accumulated interconnect debt and has not shown any commitment to off-set the debt, despite several meetings to resolve the dispute.
But responding to the issue on behalf of ATCON, Mr. Ikechukwu Nnamani, its 1st Vice President, noted that the issues of Interconnect dispute will continue to rise in the Nigeria’s telecom industry, except there is a creation of an Interconnect Settlement Scheme.
“At ATCON, we have always made a case for the creation of Interconnect Scheme as the only lasting solution to this quagmire, it will solve the legacy issues as well as prevent the future accumulation of debt,” Nnamani, who should know as the Chief Executive Officer of Medallion Communications Limited, a licensed Interconnect Clearing House told IT Pulse in a chat.
Read also: Interconnect indebtedness: stakeholders make case for automated settlement scheme
Asked those who will be in charge of the settlement scheme, he noted that it will be independently operated as well as involving the Clearing Houses to participate.
ATCON, an umbrella body of all telecom operators in Nigeria, has consistently called for the full implementation of an automated settlement scheme for the telecom industry, saying it is the only way out of the interconnect indebtedness quagmire in the industry.
Following a notice to disconnect MNOs in December last year by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), the President of ATCON, Engr. Olusola Teniola in a statement argued that disconnection of networks is not the best solution available to the regulator to resolve the indebtedness crisis.
He argues that the issue of indebtedness has built over the past 15 years and previous attempts to use disconnection of networks as the solution have not worked. “We believe that the full implementation of an automated settlement scheme for the telecom industry in Nigeria is the way out of this situation,” he stated in the statement.
ATCON believes that, under an automated settlement scheme, all operators will be made to set aside a percentage of the their daily recharge card sales into a settlement account to be used every month to handle their interconnect and facility obligations.