The National Association of Telecom Subscribers has warned that Globacom (GLO) subscribers can take legal action against the operator for its failure to settle interconnect charges with other networks.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had on Monday said Globacom customers would be barred from calling MTN lines owing to non-settlement of interconnect charges by the former.
This move could leave thousands of customers frustrated and with limited call options.
But a Glo official, who spoke to NAN in confidence on Tuesday denied that Glo owed MTN.
Reacting on the development on Channels TV on Wednesday, Adeolu Ogunbanjo, National President of the association said the subscribers were being deprived of their basic right to communicate.
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He said, “The offending operator loses, subscribers lose, unfortunately for Glo, subscribers with Glo can now for instance take Glo to court, having subscribed to their network, they are depriving them to (make calls to) any network of their choice.
“For God sake Glo should understand that this is the situation they have to remedy on time.”
Interconnect fees are charges paid by one operator to another when a call originates on its network but terminates on the other’s.
These agreements ensure smooth network switching and uninterrupting communication.
However, Ogunbanjo alleged that many of the operators avoided settling these fees.
“It is unfortunate, so it’s a fee that is within the mobile network cooperators that they charged amoung themselves which is also approved by the NCC,” he added.