The Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) said that its members have been requested to provide individual debtor banks with a deadline due to the escalating tensions between the telecommunications and deposit money banks (DMBs).
The impacted mobile network operators (MNOs) would decide how to respond to the ultimatum, The Guardian was informed. The national organization for telecom operators is called ALTON.
In an interview on Wednesday, its head of operations, Gbolahan Awonuga, stated that specific telecoms providers have been requested to write the affected DMBs and give them a deadline to make payment.
“If the DMBs fail to honour this ultimatum, the disconnection begins in earnest,” he said.
He claims that since May 12, the operators have authorized disconnection through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), with support from the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, “but having weighed the implication that may arise from the disconnection, they exercised restraints.”
“But there is a limit to that; the final decision would be taken if the banks fail to do the needful. So many things were considered, especially the country’s financial inclusion drive,” he said.
An official of one of the impacted MNOs confirmed the development and stated that operators have not yet disconnected due to the serious consequences that doing so would have on the nation. However, he asserted that high-level consultation does place at all levels, including the presidency.
“The banks are just not considerate, they are not conscientious at all. They want to play on emotion because so many people are using the USSD, so it will be difficult to disconnect. But that may not work in the long-run because telcos have invested so much and they must recoup their investment.”
“The high point of the matter is that serious lobbying is currently going on in the background. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has waded in. The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (NCC), and I can also say the Presidency.”
Dr. Abdulmumin Isa, the CBN’s acting director of corporate communication, had already said that the central bank would step in during the crisis.
“The CBN is very much aware of the protracted dispute between the banks and telcos and has been engaging all stakeholders to ensure an amicable resolution,” he said.
He claims that the CBN’s direct intervention in March 2021 led to the banks and telcos invoicing each other N6.98 for each session (along with paying any overdue costs). He continued by saying that the problem between banks and telecoms carriers was brought on by a technical crisis that had increased debt levels.
In the meantime, the nation’s hamonized shortcode system has been implemented by the telecoms carriers.
The NCC gave all mobile networks until May 17 (yesterday) to completely switch over from the previously disparate shortcodes to the harmonised codes.
The goal of short code harmonization is to create consistency among networks’ shared short codes. This indicates that regardless of the mobile network a user chooses, the code for checking airtime balance is universal.
With the new codes, telecom users on the more than 226 million active mobile lines in the nation would be able to access services across networks using the same codes.
13 common short codes have so been accepted by the Commission as part of the new harmonised short codes scheme.
They include the following codes: 300, which will be used as the standard call center/help desk code across all mobile networks, 301 for leaving voicemail, and 302 for retrieving voicemail. Other numbers are 311 for credit recharge, 303 for borrowing services, 305 for halt service, 310 for check balance, and 310.
Additionally, 312 is now the standard network code for data plans, whereas 321 is used for shared services. Balance of the data plan while using 323 and 996, which are both used for SIM (subscriber identity module) verification.
