One of the most important elements of the telecom’s ecosystem is the expectation that any customer on any network should be able to call any other network hitch free. Underlying that philosophy is the arrangement all over the world called interconnect charges. Unfortunately, the average Nigerian customer have become aware, and increasingly aware in the last 24 hours after GLO was given ultimatum by MTN and the industry regulator NCC to pay up outstanding debts owed to MTN. Failure to do so will mean that GLO customers will not be able to terminate calls on MTN. Given MTN is the largest subscriber network, which means that it collects the most of interconnect charges, it is estimated that the outstanding debts owed MTN by GLO runs into billions of Naira. What is not clear yet from the stories is whether GLO is owing the other networks, including Airtel and 9 Mobile. What is also not clear is what fraction of the outstanding debts would need to be paid for GLO to avoid this disruption to their customers. What is clear is that this is reputational damage for GLO and will further dampen its subscriber growth.
