By Stanley Iwuoha
ABUJA: A week after MTN announced upward review of it’s tariff regime, Airtel Nigeria, the second largest operator has announced it’s new tariff plan.
The price adjustment follows the 50% tariff hike approved by the Federal government which allowed telecommunications operators to raise their tariffs by up to 50 percent.
The new price increase by Airtel indicates that the price for its 3GB data — valid for two days has moved from N800 to N1,000 and the 18 gigabytes (GB) monthly plan that previously cost N5,000 now sold for N6,000.
The new data plans include:
Daily plans: N50 for 40MB (valid for 1 day), N100 for 100MB (valid for 1 day), N200 for 200MB (valid for 3 days), and N350 for 1GB (valid for 1 day).
Weekly plans: N350 for 350MB (valid for 7 days), N500 for 750MB plus 1GB YouTube Night and 200MB YouTube Music/Spotify (valid for 7 days), N500 for 1GB plus 1GB YouTube Night and 50MB Socials (valid for 7 days), and N500 for 2GB (valid for 2 days).
Monthly plans: 3GB for N2,000 (formerly 1.5GB at N1,200), 4GB for N2,500 (previously 3GB at N1,500), and 8GB for N3,000 (formerly 4.5GB at N2,000).
Other adjustments include 10GB for N4,000 (formerly 6GB at N2,500), 13GB for N5,000 (from 10GB at N3,000), 18GB for N6,000 (formerly 15GB at N4,000), and 25GB for N8,000 (previously 18GB at N5,000).
In addition to data price adjustments, Airtel’s call rates have risen to 25 kobo per second from about 18 kobo per second.
However, some tariff plans remain unchanged, such as the 5GB weekly plan for N1,500.
Text message
From this development, Airtel Nigeria has increased the cost of SMS to N6.00 per message, up from the previous N4.00.
This adjustment is not limited to Airtel, as other major telecom operators, like Globacom, MTN, and 9mobile, which have also implemented the same price change.
The Airtel’s price increase seems to be a reflection of 50% increased approved for the company contrary to 200 per cent increase by MTN Nigeria, that sparked an outrage from subscribers, who called for immediate reversal of the hike.
While some customers have expressed frustration over the new pricing structure, Airtel maintains that the revision is necessary to ensure continued service quality and network expansion.
The company has assured subscribers that it remains committed to delivering value despite the economic challenges.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in response to the MTN tariff hike last week demanded for reversal and directed workers and the public to commence boycott of the telecom service providers to press home their dissatisfaction.
This is even as the National Telecommunications Subscribers of Nigeria, NATCOMS and SERAP had gone to court to challenge the tariff increase which they believed was not done in the best interest of the common Nigerians.
They argued that NCC could have explored alternative means of sourcing more fund for the operators to maintain their businesses or at most allow 10% increase of the tariff.
They expressed that they would get justice in court since federal government did not engage all stakeholders before announcing the tariff hike.
The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) had on February 2 advised the telecom service providers to issue their tariffs differently according to their individual peculiarity, review, and obtain approvals from the NCC on regular basis.
The industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), had earlier approved a maximal tariff adjustment of 50% for operators. The commission justified the decision, citing increasing operational costs and the need for industry sustainability. The Commission backed its stance on the approval on Section 108 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 (NCA), noting that the decision was made after a wider consultation of relevant stakeholders.
With the announcement by Airtel today, it is expected that Globacom and 9mobile will.soon announce theirs.
