Reduce SMS Tariff, Operators Urge NATCOMS

Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, the President, National Association of  Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), has urged telecoms operators to reduce  the tariff on Short Messaging Service (SMS).

Ogunbanjo made the appeal on Monday in Lagos in an interview with our correspondent.

He said the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had last year released an interconnect rate of N1.94 kobo for SMS effective from Dec. 31, 2009.

“Up till now, none of the operators had effected the price change, which shows the level of extortion carried out by operators,” he said.

He said it was contemptuous of NCC’s authority for operators to ignore its directive whereas SMS in countries like Ghana, Gambia and Australia were free.

Ogunbanjo said some operators were making more than N13 from each off-net SMS when compared with the new interconnect rate of N1.94.

 “If they can’t give us SMS for free, the maximum charge for SMS off-net should not be more that N2 while SMS for on-net should be N1,” he said.