The Nigerian Communications Commission has set the call tariff for closed user group service at N50 per minute and restricted carriers from bundling data on the telecoms plan as of November 1.
According to The Nation, through the payment of monthly access fees, service providers including MTN, Glo, Airtel, and 9mobile offer CUG services that let members of enrolled customer groups benefit from discounted call rates and free on-net calls.
Telcos are now limited to just offering voice calls and text messages on the telecom plan, in addition to banning data bundles on CUG plans.
According to the new regulations that take effect on November 1, 2023, “CUG rental/access fee must not be bundled with data, VAS, or other ancillary services,” said the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Garba Danbatta.
“The maximum pricing for voice calls must be N4 per SMS and N50 per minute for voice calls. The minimum access cost for both prepaid and postpaid CUG services is N400 and the maximum is N500,” According to the NCC.
All calls and text messages inside a CUG (on net) must not cost less than N0.50 per minute for voice services and N1.02 for text messages, while all calls outside the CUG (off net) must not cost less than the price floor of N6.40 per minute for voice services and N1.02 for text messages, according to the regulator.
A minimum of three mobile station international subscriber directory number subscribers are required for a CUG offering, according to the NCC, which also limited CUG services to six subscriber categories and established a restriction on the number of phone lines that may be allotted to the various groups.
According to Prof. Danbatta, the maximum phone line limits for the six subscriber categories are as follows: 30,000 for large corporate organizations, 20,000 for government entities, 10,000 for not-for-profit organizations, 2,000 for properly registered residential estate associations, and 200 for micro, small, and medium-sized businesses.
He stated that the following categories—large corporate entities, NGOs, and MSMEs—each require the submission of the underlined documents in order to be registered for CUG services.
Business registration document (certificate of incorporation or certificate of registration or certificate of trustees); Provision of tax identification number; signed contract agreement between the organization and the telco; proof of identification of members within the CUG; the NIN of two company representatives either C-level director, CEO or board member/trustees; a request for the service shall be signed by two company representatives either C-level director, CEO or board member/trustees on the letter head of the organization.
