Telecommunications
companies say they may stop offering Unstructured Supplementary Service Data
(USSD) services to financial institutions for free.
The companies, under the
aegis of Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria
(ALTON), said banks would have to pay for the service if they want to continue
receiving it.
According to PUNCH,
Gbenga Adebayo, ALTON chairman, told reporters in Lagos on Wednesday that
network operators incurred costs daily for providing the services.
The Telco’s, who provide
the platform for the USSD service, had proposed to take a cut of N4.50k per 20
seconds from the charges paid by customers to the banks.
However, the banks kicked
against it, alleging that it would raise cost by 450 percent.
“The USSD is a service we
are providing for the banks and there is a cost incurred by telecom operators
for providing those services,” Adebayo said.
“The bank has given an
erroneous impression to the public that it is a sunk cost and it is not because
for the service to be allowed, the cell site must be powered, there must be
transmission link available and our systems must interconnect with the systems
of the banks. It is a recurring cost other than the initial capital.”
Adebayo said if banks
wanted to get the service for free, they should stop charging telecoms
subscribers for it.
“If they think we should
not charge, they also should not charge our subscribers,” he said.
“A time will come when we
will have to invoke our rights under the Communications Act, which allows us to
seek a request to disconnect the link.”
The Punch.
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