“It is an aggressive approach to stop further revenue loss to OTT players on international calls, having already lost about N100tn between 2012 and 2017″
He said: “If we fail to be pro-active by taking cogent steps now, then there are indications that we may lose between N20tn and N30tn, or so, by the end of 2018.”
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Telcos have complained about VoIP services.
However, the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said: “We don’t have any evidence of that. We do not regulate the Internet. I am not aware of this development, but globally, operators and network equipment makers don’t really embrace Skype,” the Managing Director, TechTrends Nigeria, Mr. Kenneth Omeruo, said.
“They liken Skype to an individual who takes undue advantage of other people’s generosity without giving anything in return. Globally, there is this apprehension among telecoms operators that Skype only steals their customers, while they invest billions of dollars to build, expand and upgrade networks”, he added.
If implemented, Nigeria will join other countries like China, UAE(United Arab Emirates), Oman, Syria, Turkey, Malaysia, Tchad, to name a few that have regulations that effectively block internet telephony from competing, both for monopolistic and surveillance reasons.
