Some Data Service Providers have begun to slash their data rates and plans in bids to add value to users and encourage them to stay more time online.
At least eWorldNews.com.ng can confirm that Smile is now implementing a new date tariff that slashes rate by as much as 100 per cent in some cases.
For instance, N1000 which used to offer you 1 gigabyte now gets you1.5 gigabyte. You can now get 5 gigabyte for N3000 instead of the former3 gigabyte. Eleven thousand naira can now get you 31 gigabyte instead of the previous 15.
Though Smile customer staff explained that the old plan subsists along the new plan, only the new and rates would obtain as from January 1. 2020.
You however have to get the customer service officers at the Smile customer center to explain how the new plan works. As with data and phone services tariff structures all over the world it is not always the way it appears on the surface. There are always hidden conditions and users compliance requirements that are involved in the new plan.
eWorldnews cannot accurately confirm if the bid to slash rates is in response to the order given by the minister of communications and digital economy to the ISPs to bring down data cost within five days. What is certain though is that the exercise is coming at the time the minister’s order was issued.
Corporate communications manager at Smile, Lotana Anajemba told eWorldNews that though the slash of data cost by his company coincided with the minister’s order, it was not a response to that order.
According to him, the company had begun a process of slashing its data cost some weeks before the minister’s order came, and that the exercise was completed at the time the minister gave the order, noting that it takes over three weeks before data cost review are approved by the NCC. Smile new rates have been in operation for over three weeks now.
Unlike Smile, Spectranet has not slashed its data prize since the minister gave his order.
An official who identified himself as Jagadish said Spectranet reviews its data rates from time to time, saying however that there had not been need to review them in the past one month because the company’s rates remain competitive.
When Pantami gave data services providers five days to slash the rates, the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) had replied saying data rates review are not carried out by a ministerial fiat, but through a regulatory cost determination exercise that only the NCC has the right to do in consultation with the operators. Again, a report that followed the minister’s order had challenged his claims that Nigeria’s rates were too high.
Two days ago the Minister met with officials of the NCC led by its Executive Vice Chairman, Professor Umar Danbatta to look at ways to reduce the price of data offered by the telecom operators.
At the meeting the minister urged the Commission to strike a balance between the consumers and operators, adding that the telecom operators stand to make more profit when the price is low.
The NCC team that was at the ministry had made a presentation to the Minister on new data packages been offered by some telecom operators and efforts made to review the price of mobile data downwards in Nigeria.
The Minister commended the telecom operators that have introduced new data packages recently but maintained that the price of mobile data in Nigeria is still not encouraging and on the high side, considering the cost of living in Nigeria and the over 170 Million internet users in the country.
