The House of Reps. on Wednesday halted the planned commissioning of telecommunication facilities across the country, sequel to the allegation bothering on anti-competition activities levelled against some operators in the industry.
Saheed Akinade-Fijabi, Chairman, House Committee on Telecommunications issued the directive during an interactive session with Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); IHS and SWAP Technologies & Telecoms Plc (the petitioner).
According to SWAP’s petition, IHS allegedly lessened competition in the collocation and infrastructure sharing market in breach of relevant sections of the NCC Act, 2003 and NCC Act – Competition Practice Regulations, 2007.
Abiodun Oke, Executive Director of SWAP alleged that the company entered into a Master Service and Collocation Agreement (MSCA) with Helios Towers Nigeria Limited to manage the sites owned by SWAP on the 28th August 2015.
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“Subsequently on the 10th June 2016, IHS acquired Helios Tower Nigeria with the main purpose of removing a competitor from the Nigerian market as shown in their acquisition documents and thus inherited the MSCA and started managing SWAP sites.
“While managing the sites, IHS obtained the information on the location of the sites, the tenants on the sites, the economic viability and revenue stream if the sites.
“Capitalizing on the information obtained while providing the services to the SWAP, on the 29 March 2017, IHS approached SWAP for the acquisition of 249 of SWAP’s most economically viable sites. SWAP declined the order as parties could not agree on commercial terms via a letter dated 4th April 2017. Upon SWAP declining their offer, IHS terminated the managed services and collocation agreement via their letter dated 6th April 2017,” the petition read in part.
According to him, after the termination of the MSCA, IHS started erecting towers within 50m to the 249 existing sites belonging to SWAP and are also talking to operators collocating on these towers to move to IHS towers by using their dominant position and economies of scale to offer them lower prices,” he alleged.
On his part, Bond Abbe, IHS Director, Government Relations noted the rhe rivalry among the operators has become so keen to the extent that operators offer incentives up to between 610-month month free service.
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According to him, some companies are fond of embarking on negotiations with the same landlords from where the existing or prospective sites have been secured.
While speaking, Umar Dambatta, NCC Executive Chairman explained that the commission has not gotten any submission from IHS in respect of the 249 sites in question.
He, however, argued that the Commission has over the years ensure that specifications are met before the commissioning of any facilities and sites.
While ruling on the presentations made by the parties and the regulatory agency, Akinade-Fijabi (APC-Oyo) mandated SWAP, IHS and NCC to report back within two weeks with the view to give update report on the reconciliation of the parties involved.
While urging the NCC management and all the parties to “come up with a solution but pending all these”, the Chairman of the Committee directed that “status quo should be maintained pending the conclusion of the reconciliatory process.”
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
