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NCC Unveils New Rates for CUG Calls and Text on MTN, Glo, Airtel, 9mobile from November 1

Published

2 months ago

2023-10-12

NCC Unveils New Rates for CUG Calls and Text on MTN, Glo, Airtel, 9mobile from November 1

Closed User Group (CUG) calls and text messages. These revised rates will affect operations on MTN, Glo, Airtel, and 9mobile networks, and are due to take effect from November 1.

“The NCC’s primary objective is to safeguard the interest of consumers, promoting competition and placing Nigeria on the digital global map for economic development,” said the spokesperson of NCC, maintaining the authority’s stand on enhancing Customers’ quality of service.

The Commission made this move as part of its continuous efforts to regulate costs, improve service delivery, and facilitate fair competition in the telecommunications sector. Not only will these changes affect individual customers, but they are also likely to impact the operations of corporate bodies as well.

MTN: The prevailing CUG rates for MTN users will undergo a revision.
Glo: Glo users will also see a change in their CUG call and text rates.
Airtel: The new tariff structure will also touch Airtel’s CUG services.
9mobile: 9mobile customers aren’t excluded from this modification.

Details regarding the specific rate changes for each network operator are to be revealed at a later date. This development goes in line with the NCC’s commitment to promoting transparency and advocating consumer rights within Nigeria’s telecommunications industry.

The NCC has updated Closed User Group (CUG) call and data rates.

From November 1, 2023, telecom companies in Nigeria will charge N50 per minute for CUG services.

Service providers such as MTN, Glo, Airtel and 9mobile offer CUG services that allow enrolled customer group members to enjoy lower call rates and free on-net calls by paying monthly access fees.

The regulator also banned telecom companies from bundling data with CUG plans, The Nation reports.

This means that CUG services will now be restricted to voice calls and text messages only for customers.

Speaking on the decision, Garba Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, said:

“CUG rental/access fee must not be bundled with data, VAS, or other ancillary services.

“This directive effectively limits CUG plans to providing voice calls and text messages only.”

More details on NCC’s new directive to telcos

In addition to the call rate cap of N50 per minute for voice calls, the NCC has set the price for text messages at N4 per SMS.

The minimum access fee for prepaid and postpaid CUG services has been established at N400, with a maximum price of N500 monthly.

Furthermore, the NCC has introduced specific pricing thresholds for calls and text messages within and outside a CUG.

Calls and text messages within a CUG (on-net) must not fall below N0.50 per minute for voice services and N1.02 for text messages.

Calls outside the CUG (off-net) are subject to a price floor of N6.40 per minute for voice services and N1.02 for text messages.

The NCC has also streamlined CUG services, limiting them to six subscriber categories.

These categories include large corporate organizations (with a limit of 30,000 phone lines), government agencies (20,000), not-for-profit organizations (10,000), duly registered residential estate associations (2,000), and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) (200).