States with unfavorable telocom industry tax policies will have their residents pay more telecommunication services, service providers plan.

Telecommunications operators and service providers in Nigeria say they are planning to introduce discriminatory tariffs based on tax regimes and operating environments in different states.

The Chairman of Association of licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, announced the plan in Ilorin on Friday.
Adebayo said that subscribers in states that were hostile to service providers through tax administration would pay more for telecoms services.

“What we are going to do is to adjust the meter so that people making calls from such states pay more than what others are paying,” he said.

Adebayo condemned indiscriminate closure of telecom sites and said that operators had decided not to reopen any site closed down by a state governments without a court order.

“We are not going to beg them, we are not going to negotiate with them if they decide to close down a site because the operators refuse to pay them,” he added.

Adebayo said there were laws guiding the telecommunications industry regarding the closure of sites.

He said before a site could be closed by a government, there must be a court order to the effect and a notification to the subscribers that such a disruption of service would happen.

The ALTOM president called on Federal Government to classify telecommunication facilities as national security infrastructure.

He said telecoms infrastructure belonged to all Nigerians with service providers as custodians.

– NAN