By Emmanuel Ogbodo<\/p>\n
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is facing criticism from stakeholders in Nigeria’s telecom sector over the recent internet subscription price increase announced by Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink. The criticism centers around what is perceived as a double standard, with stakeholders arguing that while local telecom operators have been barred from raising their tariffs for over two years, Starlink has been allowed to implement a nearly 100% price hike since entering the market in January 2023.<\/p>\n
Local operators have expressed frustration, pointing out that they have invested significant resources in infrastructure to expand services despite numerous challenges in the Nigerian market. An anonymous CEO of a Nigerian internet service provider (ISP) criticized the NCC’s actions, noting that Starlink, despite acquiring an ISP license, has made no tangible investments in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been appealing to the Commission to allow us to\u202fimplement a\u202ftariff review for years now, but it said it had to carry out a cost-based study before any decision could be made. We are still waiting for the result of that study. Now, allowing Starlink to implement a price increase in the same market shows the regulator\u2019s double standard,\u201d said the ISP executive.<\/p>\n
A representative from a major Nigerian mobile network operator (MNO) echoed this sentiment, questioning the NCC\u2019s impartiality. The representative argued that the Commission has been unfair by not allowing local operators to review their tariffs despite escalating operational costs driven by inflation and the forex crisis.<\/p>\n
The controversy revolves around Section 108 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, which grants the NCC authority to regulate telecom tariffs and requires licensees to obtain NCC’s approval before charging for services. There are concerns that the NCC may have allowed Starlink’s price hike without applying the same stringent rules imposed on local operators.<\/p>\n
The NCC has yet to clarify whether it officially approved Starlink\u2019s price increase, as the Commission\u2019s Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Reuben Muoka, has not responded to inquiries seeking clarification on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Emmanuel Ogbodo The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is facing criticism from stakeholders in Nigeria’s telecom sector over the recent internet subscription price increase announced by Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink. The criticism centers around what is perceived as a double standard, with stakeholders arguing that while local telecom operators have been barred from raising their tariffs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51104,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51103\/revisions\/51104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}