Glo subscribers to be barred from calling MTN lines — NCC
Globacom customers will soon be unable to make calls to MTN lines since the interconnect fees have not been settled.
This was revealed by the Nigerian Communications Commission on Monday in a notice to the public signed by Reuben Muoka, the director of the department of public affairs.
It declared that it has given its partial consent for Globacom to be cut off from MTN Nigeria Communications Plc.
It said, “Globacom was notified of the application made by MTN and was given the opportunity to comment and state its case.
“The commission, having examined the application and circumstances surrounding the indebtedness, determined that Globacom does not have sufficient or justifiable reason for non-payment of the interconnect charges.”
The NCC revealed that at the expiration of 10 days from the date of this notice, “subscribers of Globacom will no longer be able to make calls to MTN but will be able to receive calls.
“The partial disconnection, however, will allow in-bound calls to the Globacom network.”
Glo customers will continue to be cut off from making calls to MTN due to the same problem. In 2019, MTN temporarily terminated Glo subscribers due to an N4 billion debt, following an NCC directive. Due to growing interconnect debts and the impacted operators’ nonpayment, the telecom regulator authorized mobile network operators to disconnect other operators in December 2018. At the time, the industry’s total disconnect charge was approximately N165 billion. The amount telecom providers pay one another for calls that end up on their networks is known as the interconnect charge. An MTN insider claims that Glo owes the company almost N6 billion in interconnect fees.
Glo has not yet commented on the matter, therefore attempts to gain a response are still ongoing.
By the end of August 2023, Glo’s network has 61.39 active mobile subscriptions.
The latest NCC notice states that as of January 18, 2024, these lines will be unable to make calls to MTN lines.
