Posted by Everest Amaefule, Abuja on
The Nigerian Telecommunications Limited has released about 200,000 subscriber lines that it had suspended for unpaid bills, well-placed sources have said.
The Nigerian Telecommunications Limited has released about 200,000 subscriber lines that it had suspended for unpaid bills, well-placed sources have said.
NITEL had over the years, employed ‘tossing' as a strategy for checking indebtedness and compelling debtor subscribers to clear their debts before service could be restored to them.
But stiff competition in the Nigerian telecoms industry has forced the former monopoly operator to rethink its strategy especially in the face of the need to increase active subscriber base and generate more revenue.
Our correspondent learnt that the released lines were, however, put on receive- only service and cut over to the pre-paid platform. This means the lines can only receive calls but cannot make calls.
They can, however, make calls if the subscriber used pre-paid cards that enable payment to be made in advance, our source said.
The first national operator has also started negotiating with the subscribers on the percentage of their old debts that would be deducted when they make calls using pre-paid cards. The strategy is aimed at making payment of the debts less burdensome.
The large number of lines that had been on ‘toss' in the NITEL network is an indication of the huge debts the telecoms operator had been suffering.
To tackle the problem of huge interconnect debts on its network, NITEL had also resorted to cutting over some calling card operators to the pre-paid platform.
Managing Director, NITEL, Mr. Albert Mashi, disclosed at a recent function, 'As a way preventing bad debts, PTOs shall be offered pre-paid wholesale partition on NITEL pre-paid platform. This will enable us monitor their debt profile while offering them competitive tariff. They do not need to make huge investment on platform provision."
In a related development, the mobile subsidiary of the company, the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Limited, has announced the extension of its dormancy as well as the validity period of its recharge cards.
A statement made available by the company on Monday, said subscribers could now enjoy a dormancy period of 120 days. Dormancy is the period a mobile subscriber can remain on a network without generating or terminating a call.
According to the company, subscribers can also enjoy extended validity periods in the range of its recharge cards. Its N2,000 card now has a validity period of 90 days while the N1,000 card has a period of 45 days. Similarly, the N400 card now has a validity of 20 days while the N250 card now has a validity of 10 days.
Industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, had recently issued notice of its intention to issue a directive on mobile operators about their validity and dormancy which subscribers had said was too short.
This has seen mobile operators responding with an increase in both periods they offer on their networks.
The PUNCH, Tuesday, August 30, 2005