Glo Mobile Subscribers To Be Barred From Calling MTN Users

The non-payment of interconnect charges may result in Globacom subscribers losing the ability to call MTN lines soon.

This possibility was disclosed on Monday by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) through a communique issued by the Director of the Public Affairs Department, Reuben Muoka.

According to the PUNCH, the notice mentioned that the commission has given partial approval for the disconnection of Globacom from MTN Nigeria Communications Plc.

“Globacom was notified of the application made by MTN and was given the opportunity to comment and state its case.

“The Commission, having examined the application and circumstances surrounding the indebtedness, determined that Globacom does not have sufficient or justifiable reason for non-payment of the interconnect charges,” the notice reads.

The NCC revealed that at the expiration of 10 days from the date of this notice, “subscribers of Globacom will no longer be able to make calls to MTN but will be able to receive calls.

“The partial disconnection, however, will allow in-bound calls to the Globacom network,” the notice added.

This was not the first incident where Globacomm subscribers were barred from making calls to MTN users over the same issue.

Sometime in 2019, MTN temporarily disconnected Glo subscribers due to a N4 billion debt, following a directive from the NCC.

In December 2018, the telecom regulator authorized mobile network operators to disconnect other operators due to increasing interconnect debts and non-payment by the affected operators.

At that time, the total disconnect fee in the industry amounted to approximately N165bn. Interconnect charge refers to the amount that telecom operators pay each other for calls terminating on their networks.

The PUNCH quoted an MTN source to have disclosed that Glo owes the company around N6 billion in interconnect fees. Efforts to obtain Glo’s response are still ongoing, as the company has not yet commented on the matter.

As of the end of August 2023, there were 61.39 million mobile subscriptions on Glo’s network.

Based on the recent notice from the NCC, these lines will be unable to make calls to MTN lines starting from January 18, 2024.