The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ATCON

  • ATCON: telecoms is on Exclusive Legislative List

    ATCON: telecoms is on Exclusive Legislative List

    • States, local govts urged to respect constitution

    Telecoms operators have reminded the 36 states and 774 local government councils in the country that telecoms still remained on the Exclusive Legislative List, urging them to respect the constitution of the country and stop charging spurious taxes, levies and harassing telcos.

    The operators, acting under the aegis of the Association of Telecoms Company of Nigeria (ATCON), lamented that disregard for the provisions of the constitution has stunted the growth of the industry as it has been difficult to expand capacity.

    Its new President, Olusola Teniola, who spoke in Lagos after being elected, said the group will move away from being reactionary to being more proactive, pragmatic and engaging.

    He said to achieve this, there is need to develop strategic and purposeful engagements with all tiers of government.

    “The telecoms business is on the exclusive list of the Federal Government, but what is playing out or obtainable in our country right now is that all tiers of government levy taxes on all our member-companies and it is affecting the growth of the telecoms sector. The conceptualisation of ATCON was to support and give direction to telecoms industry policy formulation and implementation in Nigeria. We shall concern ourselves with the federal, state and local government in respect of developing the telecoms sector in a manner that everyone wins,” he said, adding that ATCON as an institution would work closely with all agencies set up by various tiers of government to develop a model that would be mutually beneficial to everyone in the value chain.

    He said collaboration was important to move the industry forward, adding that collaboration with agencies such as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and other related ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) would be stepped up.

    “ATCON would collaborate with the Federal Government to protect existing investments in the telecoms sector through advocacy. We would also as a matter of part of its objective to encourage further investment in the sector, encourage embarking on trade missions to other countries of the world to woo investors,” Teniola said.

    Speaking on what he intends doing for the association; he said ATCON under his leadership would reactivate its popular conference and exhibition which is known as Communication Business Information Technology Exhibition and Conference (ComBIT Expo).

    As a matter of fact, the date for the 2016 edition of ComBIT Expo and Conference shall be announced in the month of June this year to underscore the seriousness of the new exco, he said.

     

     

    “The impact of ATCON News in the Nigerian telecoms industry has been impressive in terms of timely information dissemination to all stakeholders in the sector. This NEC (National Executive Council) shall also produce the hard copy of ATCONNews on quarterly basis. ATCON would be open for strategic partnership from members and international communities,” he said.

    Other members of the NEC are Tony Nwosu—first vice president; David Roberts—second vice president; Myke Ofili – national secretary; Adeyegbe Aderonke—treasurer; Ikechukwu Nnamani  —coordinator, Telephone Operators; Jude Egokwu—oordinator, Infrastructure Providers; Gbeyega Ojuri—coordinator, Internet Services Providers (ISPs); Adebusuyi Adetunji—coordinator, Manufacturer’s Representative; and Hyacinth Anucha—coordinator, Value Added Services (VAS).

     

  • ATCON to NCC: protect smaller players

    ATCON to NCC: protect smaller players

    The Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has stressed the need for regulatory intervention to safe smaller players in the telecoms space.

    The group warned that if the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) fails to intervene, smaller players in the industry may go into extinction.

    Its President, Lanre Ajayi however said caution must be taken in the course of doing this so that success is not punished.

    He spoke with The Nation against the backdrop of calls for structural readjustment in the telecoms sector owing to the presence of dominant operatorship in the industry.

    He said: “This is an area that

    has to be carefully addressed. This is because you don’t want to punish success; you don’t want to punish someone that has invested. We are encouraging people to come and invest and they have invested and are getting big. You don’t want to start punishing them because they are getting big because in the first place, you pleaded with them to bring their money to come and invest in your environment and they have done that and they are expanding, that should make us happy right. We should not make deliberate efforts to start punishing them. “But on the other hand too, if care is not taken they will grow so big that they would not allow the smaller ones to grow. So there is also a need for a regulatory responsibility in that perspective that would ensure that you do not use your market size as a deterrent for smaller ones.”

    On whether the NCC is doing enough, he said the regulator is doing something, adding that its best may not be good enough though.

    “Well, I will say the NCC is doing something but maybe not enough. Well because I know for a fact that NCC introduced an asynchronous inter-connect billing which made the older company to pay more interconnect rate than the newer company. It’s a deliberate policy to encourage younger business to grow. So that’s a policy in that respect.

    “I will not say the NCC is not doing anything about it; rather, the NCC is actually doing something. And again you will realise that at some point, the NCC regulated about having separate billings for off net and on net. At some point NCC made some regulation in that area; that is also to a sort of move to discourage market dominance and prevent roughshod ride over the smaller players. So with those examples you will agree with me that NCC is doing something but can they do more, maybe yes,” he said.

     

  • ATCON warns against backlash of NCC’s policy

    ATCON warns against backlash of NCC’s policy

    The Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has warned the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) against implementing its open access model for broadband deployment.

    It said a similar policy by the regulator a few years ago affected internet service providers (ISPs).

    ATCON’s President, Lanre Ajayi, said the first step in a new policy should be its environment impact assessment (EIA).

    He urged the NCC to undertake an EIA of the broadband policy.

    He said there could be a backlash of a good policy.

    According to him, a policy by the NCC a few years ago which stopped ISPs from operating at a particular band depleted the number of players from 92 to less than 30, adding that the policy might also have a similar ripple effect in the industry.

    “Have we done the socio-economic impact assessment the policy? I think we should do the socio economic impact of the policy before we jump into its implementation,” Ajayi warned.

    Under the open access model, which the NCC intends to implement, a total of seven companies called InfraCos will be licensed to provide broadband services in the six geo-political zones of the country will one of the InfraCos will operate in Lagos.

    NCC Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Dr Eugene Juwah, said the government would provide funds to the InfraCos based on their plan.

    But some players in the sector said it could lead to unfair practices.

    One of the stakeholders in the industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, lamented that the NCC would spend public funds on the companies the regulator will be licensing to provide broadband services to the citizens.

    “When you deploy public funds to a private investor, such funds will be used to have undue advantage over the players in the industry,” he said.

    But the EVC said there was nothing esoteric about the government offering subsidy to investors, arguing that the earliest players in the mobile telephone services enjoyed tax holidays for about five years, adding that even after the expiration of the five years, some of them were not ready to pay.

    Juwah said since the project for which subsidy was being provided was for the public good, there was nothing wrong with providing such an incentive, arguing that fears of the players in the segment was baseless.

  • ATCON warns against backlash of NCC’s policy

    The Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has warned the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to be careful in the implementation of its open access model for broadband, warning that a similar policy of the regulator a few years ago led to the near-extinction of internet service providers (ISPs) in the country.

    Its President, Lanre Ajayi said whenever a project is to be executed, the first step is that study of its environment impact assessment (EIA), the result of which guides the people implementing the project.

    Ajayi said the NCC should undertake the impact assessment of the broadband policy on the operators so that it does not muscle existing service providers in the segment of the industry. He said there are usually a point of difference between the ‘good’ intentions of government and the backlash of the intentions.

    According to him, a policy of the NCC a few years ago that stopped ISPs from operating at a particular band depleted the number players in the industry from 92 to less than 30, adding that the policy of the NCC may also have similar ripple effect in the industry.

    “Have we done the socio-economic impact assessment the policy? I think we should do the socio economic impact of the policy before we jump into its implementation,” Ajayi warned.

    Under the open access model which the NCC intends to implement, a total of seven companies called InfraCos will be licensed to provide broadband services in the six geo-political zones of the country will one of the InfraCos will operate in Lagos.

    NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Dr Eugene Juwah, said the government will provide funding to the InfraCos based on their business plans.

    But some players in the sector say it is going to lead unfair practices.

    One of the stakeholders in the industry who spoke on condition of anonymity lamented that the NCC will be spending public funds on the companies the regulator will be licensing to provide broadband services to the citizens.

    “When you deploy public funds to a private investor, such funds will be used to have undue advantage over the players in the industry,” he said.

    But the EVC said there was nothing esoteric about government offering subsidy to investors, arguing that the earliest players in the mobile telephone services enjoyed tax holidays for about five years, adding that even after the expiration of the five years, some of them were not ready to pay.

    Juwah said since the project for which subsidy was being provided was for the public good, there is nothing wrong with providing such an incentive, arguing that fears of the players in the segment was baseless.

  • Harsh environment depletes ALTON’s membership

    THE Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has said the harsh business operating environment has taken a toll on its membership, lamenting it has slumped from 35 to just only 12.

    Its President, Gbenga Adebayo, said the barriers that led to the extinction of the 23 firms were still there, adding that new licencees should be wary of the banana peels that led to the fall of the others.

    Adebayo, who spoke in Lagos at a forum organised by the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), renewed calls for urgent classification of telecoms infrastructure as critical national infrastructure to insulate it from willful vandalism by meting out severe punishment on apprehended vandals.

    He said operators were working within a peculiar socio-political environment, which was affecting quality of services, insisting that fines and other sanctions will not enthrone high telecoms services.

    Adebayo recalled that when he travelled by road, he was appalled by the level of vandalism on the optic fibre cables laid by his members, adding that when he challenged the contractor handling the project, he said he was not aware that such an important infrastructure was buried beneath the earth surface.

    “In the beginning, ALTON’s membership was in the region of 35, but now, it is about 12. If we license new operators and fail to address the barriers, they may not succeed,” Adebayo said.

    Issues such as multiple taxation/regulation, slow grant of right of way, willful vandalism and theft of generators at base transmission station (BTS) were identified as some of the challenges besetting the industry. Operators also have to contend with running of BTS on diesel, a situation that has aggravated the operating cost of the service providers.

  • ‘Why telcos can’t list on NSE’

    ‘Why telcos can’t list on NSE’

    Former President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Engr Titi Omo-Ettu, has said the non-institutionalisation of corporate governance in the country is one of the reasons why the telecom companies operating in Nigeria have refused to list on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE).

    He said the telcos may begin to look in that direction when corporate governance is put in place. According to him, this problem may have informed the stakeholders’ forum on corporate governance organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in Lagos.

    He argued that when the issue of corporate governance is embraced, serious companise will look in the direction of listing on then NSE.

    Speaking on Board Leadership & Governance at the stakeholders’ corporate governance forum, MTN board chairman, Dr Pascal Dozie, said it was the absence of corporate governance that led to the demise o some banks in the country, arguing that where there is a strong board, the company is unlikely to die the way the banks went unders.

    According to him, accepting a board appointment is not a tea party because precious time will be spent on running the company. He therefore advised people who are not ready to serve not to take up the board appointment of any company.