Telcos say can’t improve service delivery until Q3, reneging on promise
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Despite hiking voice and data tariffs 50 per cent in February and market leader MTN able to scrape N1.06 trillion revenue in the first quarter of 2025 (Q1 2025) in a hostile business terrain, telecommunication companies (telcos) have reneged on their promise to improve service delivery in May, shifting the date to Q3.
Improving service delivery was a major plank that underpinned the tariff rise, which customers opposed, yet led to the latest hike in the cost of text alerts on account transactions by banks from N4 to N6 per alert which began on May 1 – topping up the increases in February.
MTN Chief Executive Officer Karl Toriola disclosed on Arise Television the N1.06 trillion Q1 2025 revenue, that orders have been placed for equipment but customers should wait till Q3 to enjoy improvement in service.
Telcos gathered journalists, content creators and other industry stakeholders together at the Telecoms Executive Forum in February to discuss the 50 per cent hike, where they assured that service would improve three months after effecting tariff hike.
Going by that promise, telecom services were supposed to improve by May, but with the new narrative by Toriola – presumably on behalf of all telcos – subscribers would have to wait till between July and September to see better quality of service (QoS).
He admitted that telcos are seriously under clear and significant pressure from subscribers, regulator Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), and security agencies to deliver better service.
“Though we have not seen significant earnings coming from the tariff hike, yet we are all committed to improving service,” he stressed.
“MTN would probably do more than twice the capital expenditure we did in 2023 and 2024. In the previous two years, we did about N440 billion, we shall increase that to about N900 billion, depending on the performance of our financials, to ensure we upgrade and expand services.
“The quality-of-service issues are multifaceted. The first thing we needed to do was to be able to pay our bills, particularly for diesel, among others, to prevent site outages.
“Last year, we were burning about 130 per cent of the cash we were earning, which means we were borrowing to keep the network going. Now, with the gradual stability of the naira, we can cover those bills and start to invest aggressively.
“Investing means putting additional capacity, for instance, in a city like Lagos and particularly in Abuja, where new buildings are coming up, we need more sites to ensure there is improved coverage.
“We have placed huge orders for equipment, and we are hopeful that by the end of Q2 and especially Q3 2025, after drastic deployments, telephone services should improve greatly. We want to see improved quality of experience on the part of users.”
Toriola also disclosed that the protracted N200 billion Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) debt palaver between telcos and banks has been resolved.
“I can confirm that the matter has been fully resolved. We have received payments in full. Special thanks to the CBN, NCC, the banks and other stakeholders that intervened in the matter.”
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