Etisalat LOVES to sue MTN

Etisalat Nigeria is the youngest of all the players in the telecoms sector in the country, but has emerged as the operator most likely to challenge industry leader, MTN Nigeria.

There is still a pending case before the courts brought against MTN by Etisalat last year over a promo which was approved by the National Communications Commission (NCC), but which Etisalat claims gave unfair advantage to MTN as a dominant player. NCC had approved that MTN can charge a 30 per cent difference between MTN to MTN calls (on-net) and calls to other networks (off-net). Etisalat argued that with the said 30 per cent differential, MTN had been able to create what is called a “calling club,” an example of which is its ‘Family and Friends’ promo.

According to Etisalat, the MTN ‘Family and Friends’ promo, which offers a call rate of 11 kobo per second to eight MTN subscribers and two non-MTN subscribers, is posing a threat to its business survival. It explained that the ‘Family and Friends’ promo, which it claimed was launched in violation of NCC’s regulation, had aided MTN to leverage on its size to restrict outgoing traffic to smaller operators by pricing on-net tariffs lower so as to make off-net calls unattractive.

While that case is yet unresolved, Etisalat has sued MTN again over its recent acquisition of Visafone. Etisalat is challenging MTN’s use of the 800megahertz (MHZ) spectrum owned by Visafone, saying it will entrench the dominance of MTN in the retail data services market.

“You will recall that MTN Nigeria was declared dominant by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in 2013 and remains dominant in the wholesale leased line and retail voice markets.

“The use of the 800MHz spectrum to deploy broadband services ahead of its competitors, particularly those who prior to MTNs purchase of Visafone, held similar spectrum bands as MTN, will further entrench MTN’s dominance in the Nigerian telecommunications sector,” Etisalat said in a statement confirmed by its Head of Media, Chineze Amanfo, yesterday.

The telco said it had, in addition to the legal action and in line with Section 86 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, engaged the NCC to understand the basis of its decision to approve the acquisition. “As you are aware, the matter is already in court as such, we are restrained from commenting further on the matter,” the telco added.