Abolaji Adebayo 
Proliferation of tariff plans by mobile networks have been giving subscribers headaches, keeping them in dilemma on which to choose to get value for their money.
It was discovered that the four major mobile network operators in Nigeria has about 267 different tariff plans for both voice and data tied to promotion on their platforms.
This was revealed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) through its research on the complaints of subscribers concerning data depletion.
Explaining the outcome of the research at a 2-Day Upskilling On Trends In Telecom Industry For Media Stakeholders held in Lagos, the Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, said majority of the telecoms subscribers do not know the actual tariffs charged by their network providers.
Analysing the various tariff plans by the telcos, Adinde said MTN as the largest operator, currently has 159 tariff plans, with 14 for voice and 145 for data.
Airtel has 27 for voice and 41 for data services. Globacom has six for voice and 32 for data, while 9mobile has seven different tariff plans for voice and 97 for data.
According to him, the situation has made it difficult for many subscribers to actually select the beat tariff plan for them since there is proliferation of such plans on the networks of their providers, noting that most times, the difference between two tariffs is not discernable by the subscribers.
He said this has been affecting the quality of experience (QoE) advocating by the Agency, and so creating uncertainty for the consumers.
Meanwhile, he said the Commission is to streamline the various tariff plans to just seven for for better understanding of the consumers and to enhance the quality of experience.
“The whole idea is to ensure that consumers have a good experience, because too many tariff plans affect the quality of service – all benefits or allowances, voice, SMS and data must be seated in clear, useful and user friendly formats.
“We don’t get this kind of transparency many of us are passionate about. I was able to state how much this time you use per session. Every time you use maybe five minutes on YouTube, two minutes of maybe Netflix, three minutes of Facebook experience, and all of that.
‘So this new data says how much per second for SMS, for voice and for data. Now on the other side, the Commission will then publish approved times on the Commission’s websites. We’re going to do this correctly.
“So under this simplification regime, approved times across all records. So when you go to our website, you will see the tariff plans for voice and for data across the different levels.
“This is similar to legal experience. Now, under the current simplification guidance, it is expected that no operator will have more than seven tariff plans. It makes it easier for the customer to really make a choice about what better or what services to select.”
On data depletion which many subscribers have constantly been complaining about, Adinde said there are about six factors which have been discovered causing the data depletion.
Among the factors he said the consumers should be aware of are their activities on their devices, the complexity of their devices, the number of unused applications they open on their devices and other factors.
“That depletion is just a perception, but not the desire of the operators, whereas in reality, it is the activities that people do with their phones that consume their data. So, while you are here, we expect you journalists who now have a better understanding of this, to also communicate and help us to educate and create more awareness about what uses data on the phone. What really uses data is the activities that we embark upon.
“The more activities you carry on, the more date used, and the stronger phone in terms of the spread of the phone, the resolution of the phone, the more likely you are to use more data.
“Because data depletion came up on our own statistics as one of the five top concerns. That’s why the industry decided to dedicate resources to really address and create more awareness about what depletes data so people are able to understand how to manage their data resources.”
