The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has recommended that Over The Top (OTT) operators enter into agreement with telecommunications companies (telcos) for revenue sharing or payment of a kind of interconnect fee to telcos.
ALTON chairman, Engineer Gbenga Adebayo made the recommendation in his speech during a visit to the Minister of Communication, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami.
He called on the Minister to introduce data price floor to ensure that telcos price data profitably irrespective of activities carried out by data customers.
Commenting on OTT Services in Nigeria, Adebayo said that the increasing usage of OTT services by customers is adversely impacting on traditional telecoms platforms. “According to Ovum, the independent analyst and consultancy: The growing adoption of OTT services by customers instead of traditional telecoms services will occasion global revenue loss of $386bn over a period of six years (2012 – 2018) for the traditional telecom operators, thus endangering network development,” he said.
He further noted that data shows that voice minutes have been declining due to impact of OTT; Voice Minutes has been declining while VoIP has been increasing; OTT data flux has been increasing as shown with the 2016 data, adding that Telcos are losing money due to this trend. He therefore called for urgent action to save Telcos further loss due to activities of OTT players who do not invest in infrastructure.
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