A new fixed International Termination Rate (ITR) of $0.10 has been established for voice services by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
For terminating international calls on local Nigerian networks, foreign telecom providers typically pay the fees.
The ITR, which relates to the price of sending call traffic into Nigeria, was raised from the floor price of $0.045 that was initially proposed in December 2021.
The NCC says the new rate, which would take effect September 1, 2022, was the fixed rate for ITR services.
The Commission further said that international operators were mandated to pay local operations in dollars.
This is according to a document on the Determination of Mobile (Voice) International Termination Rate (As Amended) as of August 25, 2022, which is available on the NCC website.
On the reason for backtracking on the floor price to a fixed price, the NCC says, “While the Determination had set a floor price at $0.045 and gives the MNOs room to negotiate on commercial terms with carriers, there were related indications that MNOs took advantage of this latitude to engage in discriminatory pricing that favours their related international carrier partners to the detriment of the Nigerian transit/IDA operators.
“To check the incidence of such anti-competitive disposition, it was agreed by all parties at the meetings that a fixed rate should be adopted by the Commission, in place of the floor rate which had provided a platform for negotiations with various carriers at a rate above the floor.
“It was further agreed that the present Determination should be amended to include this new fixed rate.”
