NCC declares MTN dominant player in voice market

Remmy Nweke/DigitalSENSE Business News

 

A study conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has declared MTN Nigeria as dominant player in the voice market, just as MTN and Glo are jointly dominant in whole sale leased lines and transmission capacity market.

The study conducted for NCC by KPMG Professional Services was contracted since June 2012 to assess the current level of competition in the industry.

DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that KPMG had in 2005 conducted a similar study for NCC without outright declaration of dominant operators at the end; this was attributed to growing state of the mobile and long distance market at the time.

According to NCC spokesman, Mr. Tony Ojobo, this declaration was in consistent with the liberalization of the Nigerian telecommunications industry in year 2000, which saw to facilitation of market entry through its transparent licensing processes for various communications services.

“Today, Nigeria is the fastest growing telecommunications market in Africa and it is noteworthy that the giant strides in the telecommunications industry over the last decade were the direct effects of enabling regulatory environment created by the Commission,” he said.

NCC, he noted, acknowledges the resoluteness and commitment of the network operators towards the development of the telecommunications industry and will continue to partner with them as key stakeholders in further advancing the telecommunications market for the benefit of consumers and the entire industry.

Ojobo, pointed out that present level of maturity of the Nigerian telecommunications market, NCC as the regulator is mandated to ensure the sustainability, stability and steady growth of the industry.

“The Commission has to provide a level playing field to the operators and ensure that the market is not abused by any operator,” he said.

The study by the Consultant, he said, commenced in the form of one-on-one interactive meetings with the operators, followed by a stakeholders’ forum in order to sensitize the industry and provide opportunities for constructive contributions on the state of the telecommunications markets in Nigeria.

Additionally, Ojobo said, the network operators provided industry statistical data for the study.

He disclosed that the study was segmented into voice, data, upstream and downstream services, stressing that the voice and data markets similarly have mobile and fixed sub-segments.

While the sub-segments of the upstream market are spectrum and frequency services, tower and network services respectively, in addition to wholesale broadband cum Internet services and wholesale leased lines and transmission capacity services, whereas the handsets and devices as well as applications, contents made up the sub-segments of the downstream market.

Although, he said, the study concluded that the mobile voice market was not effectively competitive, within the period under review, the fixed voice market has consistently lost market share over the past three years and no operator was considered by the study to be dominant.

 
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