The essence of competition in telecoms sector

Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.–President Herbert Hoover

COMPETITION is a state of centrifugal market forces that produce gains for the overall economy, thereby encouraging consumer sovereignty and stability of the market. The Nigerian telecommunications sector has been one of fastest growing telecoms markets in the sub-Sahara Africa. The successes recorded so far in the sector can be assertively attributed to the regulatory prowess of the telecom industry watchdog, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which has been able to stamp out monopoly through healthy competition and protection of interests of both service providers cum investors and subscribers simultaneously.

At the advent of GSM revolution in Nigeria, many prospective foreign investors, consultant firms, bankers and their Nigerian partners underestimated the opportunities cum potentials in the sector. The Chairman of Etisalat Nigeria enumerated it all in his recent inspiring speech delivered at University of Cambridge Judge Business School, United Kingdom. He was quoted as saying that one of his biggest mistakes in business was when he was part of a losing bid for the first mobile network licences in Nigeria. “At the time, some of the world’s most reputable consultancy firms advised that the Nigerian mobile phone market could not exceed 20 million subscribers. Based on this figure, Belo-Osagie’s partners decided not to bid more than US$265 million. Today, Nigeria has more than 100 million mobile phone subscribers, and in hindsight, Belo-Osagie said that the actual value of the licence was probably closer to $800 million.”

Juxtapose Belo-Osagie’s confessional statement with an introspective one made by one of the retired CEOs of Vodafone, who said that his worst business decision as CEO of Vodafone was not investing in Nigeria’s telecoms market. He wrongly assumed that Nigerians were too poor to afford mobile phones. The million-dollar questions are: what change the story? What magic wand turned Nigerian telecom market from a less attractive to lucrative industry? It is called competition! This is where the NCC should be adequately applauded for maintaining healthy competitive energy in the industry, invariably increasing the quality of service offered by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

Affordability of GSM lines vis-à-vis massive deployment of telecommunication network infrastructure across the length and breadth of Nigeria, together with eagle-eyed regulatory checks and balances provided by the NCC, saw the astronomical rise of the Nigerian telecom sector from 400,000 active lines in 2001 to over 100 million functional lines in 2016. These landmark achievements in the telecom industry,contributed a lot in the growth of the nation’s economy. It made Nigeria investment haven for foreign telecommunication operators. This would not have been possible if normalcy was allowed to degenerate into complacency in the market—thereby destroying the spirit of competition par excellence.

I can vividly recall that MTN Nigeria held Nigerian subscribers by the jugular via its per-minute billing system, until Globacom came to our rescue. To the chagrin of MTN Nigeria, Globacom introduced the per-second billing template. This singular act of competition from Globacom altered the business game in the market. MTN Nigeria was persuaded by the exigencies of market forces to adopt the per-second billing system just to remain in business. Nigerians became winners; our telecoms industry prospered and created wealth for millions of the citizens. Those foreign investors and their partners in Nigeria like Hakeem Belo-Osagie, who hitherto underrated potential of Nigerian telecom sector at advent of the GSM revolution, were compelled to invest massively in the industry, thereby creating job and wealth for millions of our youths.

In furtherance of its quest to keep providing options for subscribers and sustains competition in the industry, the NCC conceptualised and launched Mobile Number Portability (MNP). MNP was introduced to the market on April 22, 2013. It was aimed at enabling a subscriber to change his Mobile Network without losing his identity—phone number. Since its debut, it has recorded myriadsof gains in the sector. It has also encouraged many subscribers—who were not satisfied with poor quality of service being provided for their previous network providers, to migrate to other platforms with better alternatives of services. Similarly, it has motivated new entrants Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to offer better services to the subscribers, which made them magnets of attraction to unsatisfied telecom consumers. The MNP scheme has reduced anti-competitive practices by the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and created a level playing field—that can be defined as true essence of competition.

The recent hullaballoo created by the botched data tariff hike, otherwise known as price floor and price cap, is one of the regulatory policies of the NCC used in maintaining effective competition and protection of smaller operators in the sector, with sole mandate of stabilizing the industry via effective competition.Those who vehemently rejected the policy failed tounderstand the nitty-gritty of market forces dynamics in the telecom sector. Some critics even erroneously progressed to the extreme point of labelling the initiative and its promoters as anti-people, while reverse is the case.

The new Price Floor and Price Cap were not introduced to impoverish Nigerians through exorbitant data tariffs as the general public were made to believe, but was initiated to prevent Predatory Pricing. According to the NCC, it is the practice of providing services at prices that are low enough to drive out competitors out of the market, so as to monopolize the market. As much as Nigerians yearn for lower cost of telecom services, protecting the market against monopolist Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), should also be at the back of our minds. And the only avenue of achieving such feat is to ensure healthy competition in the industry.

• Chidiebere writes in from Abuja.