NCC Okays MTN’s Partial Disconnection Of Glo Over N70bn Debt

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has approved the partial disconnection of Globacom Ltd (Glo) from the network of MTN Nigeria Communications Plc over mounting interconnect debt estimated at N70 billion.

In a public notice on Monday, the regulator said Glo subscribers will be barred from making outbound calls to MTN subscribers after a 10-day window from January 8.

The NCC explained that its decision followed Glo’s repeated failure to justify why it has not been meeting its payment obligations to MTN as required of telecoms operators.

However, inbound calls to Glo’s 49 million subscribers will be allowed to sustain consumer experience. The partial disconnection will remain until the Commission makes a fresh determination.

Industry analysts see NCC’s unprecedented move as a bold step towards addressing the intractable problem of interconnect debt threatening infrastructure expansion among telecom operators. The Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta had noted that interconnect debt could cripple networks which ultimately impacts quality of service.

Glo and MTN have been locked in a prolonged interconnect billing dispute regarding termination rates for voice, SMS and data services on each other’s network. Sources disclosed that MTN petitioned the NCC in 2021 to intervene after negotiations failed.

Interconnect rate is the cost telecom operators pay each other for calls terminating on their networks which has continued to grow exponentially over the years.