The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has embarked on a cost-based study to set the new pricing regime for mobile International Termination Rate (ITR) for in-bound voice calls in the country.
ITR is the rate paid to local operators by international operators to terminate calls in Nigeria.
As part of the process for the rate determination, NCC, in a statement signed by its Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, has organised a virtual stakeholder engagement forum with industry stakeholders to intimate them of the ongoing cost-based study and the need to cooperate with Messrs Payday Advance and Support Services Limited, the consultants engaged to carry out the study.
Addressing the stakeholders in Abuja yesterday, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the study had become imperative following the various implementation constraints arising from contending industry and market dynamics in previous efforts at finding an optimum price for the termination of international voice services in the country.
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Danbatta, who was represented at the forum by the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, NCC, Adeleke Adewolu, said through the new ITR pricing, the commission would be able to balance the competing objectives of economic efficiency, allowing operators the latitude to generate reasonable revenue.
The EVC, however, explained that in 2013, NCC issued a determination stating that Mobile Termination Rate (MTR) was the same irrespective of where the call originated, a clause he said was largely misconstrued by operators at that time to mean that ITR should be the same as the MTR.
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