Telecommunications operators in the country have resolved to withdraw Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) service they deliver to banks, saying they cannot deliver such service free of charge while banks charge their customers for the service.
Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), disclosed this at a media interaction to mark 20th anniversary of their Association in Lagos.
He said the decision has become necessary in view of the inability of the minister of communications and Digital Economy to set up a working group to look into issues around the recent charges introduced by operators after directing them to suspend such charges.
“We will not offer USSD link free of charge to the banks because they charge their customers for it,” he said.
He however explained that ALTON formerly National Association of Telecom Operators (NALTO) was incorporated in the year 2000 as the Association Of License Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) a corporate body, duly registered under the laws of Federal Republic of Nigeria as an Incorporated Trustee, and officially recognized by the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Nigerian Communications Commission and other regulatory agencies as the industry body for all providers of telecommunications and subsidiary services in Nigeria.
According to him, “over the past 20 years, we have four GSM operators, two VoIP operators, and four Fixed Wired operators recording 172.9mn mobile subscriptions and teledensity at 123.5%.
“The industry has contributed over N15trn to Nigerian economy from inception till date, over 123mn internet subscriptions across various technology platforms (e.g. VoIP, GSM & Fixed Wired), sector contribution to GDP at 11.4% as at (Q2 2019), over USD68bn FDI in the sector.
“More critically and beyond growth in sheer numerical terms, telecoms has evolved from being a sparsely-available public utility to becoming a ‘social overhead capital’ – enabling real-time, everyday communication between citizens who would otherwise have to rely on limited legacy communication channels.
“Provision of data centre & data hosting services (includes both physical accommodating of servers and provision of hosting services) which power corporate organizations – such that in many cases the entire business-critical information database underpinning such operations is powered by MNOs These include data such as transaction history, customer contact information and email accounts.
“Provision of national security support to relevant law enforcement agencies via our network facilities in line with our national interest obligations
“Provision of the connectivity service that enables, online and real-time communications between networked corporate organizations such as banks, MDAs; Without such connectivity, financial transactions cannot be validated, salaries cannot be paid, social services offered by government agencies (such as payments and registrations) will be crippled, with a real likelihood of a socio-economic collapse
“Provision of a wide range of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services such as automated vehicle and livestock tracking, vehicle fleet management, surveillance, ATM and POS support, fuel inventory management and smart metering.