Many Nigerians could be forgiven for thinking that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) was established only five years ago. Indeed before now the only mention the commission got in the press, and in conversation among the generality of people was how the former monopoly phone provider, NITEL, was usurping the powers of the NCC, dictating the fate of the private telephone operators. All this has changed.

The change started with the cancellation of telephone licenses issued under dubious circumstances by the military administration of the late General Sani Abacha. But the impetus for the present growth was established in 2001 with the licensing of mobile phone service providers. The bids for the licenses were a huge contrast from what obtained in similar circumstances before then.

The auction was done in an open and transparent manner; even the losers in the process did not find any fault in their losing to companies that were better prepared. Or better put, companies that saw huge masses of people waiting to be served communications services won the bid. The final bid price for the digital mobile phone spectrum licenses confirmed the potential of the market, but which some criticised as too much. The commission was severely criticised for allowing the bid to reach $285 million. The market has however vindicated the NCC’s position, which is to allow operators test their mettle where it matters most, the market.

That disposition has equally being carried over to regulating the industry. When the mobile phone operators launched services in 2001, many Nigerians considered the entry price and tariffs as too high. There were strident calls for the operators to be sanctioned, or that the DML licenses should be withdrawn. The commission was at pains to explain that the market would eventually force the operators to climb down from the mountaintop rates they were billing their subscribers per minute. NCC was even called ‘operators protector’.

Again, as happened to the DML fees, the market has determined, and still is determining the rates operators could charge their subscribers. In three years, the entry price for mobile phones has dropped from N20,000 to a nominal price of N1! Or as it was in one case, the SIMs were literally given away. The market has however been more vicious in the rates Nigerians pay for phone services. And this is not indicated in the prepaid or postpaid services, but in the phone call centres, which have turned out to be gravy train for the operators.

The cost of calling at business centres, as they are generally called, has continued to fall. Activities in this peculiar niche of the industry conform to the best tenets of free markets. Entry is free, and exit is even freer. Setting up shops side by side, the business centres offer potential customers incredibly cheap call rates, sometimes as low as N10 per minute. With many Nigerians patronising the service of call centres, operators are content to sell as many lines as their networks can carry, and offer call centres incentives to sell airtime cheaply.

In the final analysis, the huge volume of calls generated at the call centres compensate for the dwindling average revenue per user (ARPU) in the industry. The competition is on among mobile phone service providers to provide the best incentives for business centres. Is it the NCC’s doing? Remotely, yes. Ernest Ndukwe, vice chairman of the NCC has always advocated less regulation of the market, leaving market forces to drive growth and ensure high quality of service. According to him, any operator that takes the subscriber for granted will be punished by that subscriber. “He would simply switch to another operator, and if subscribers keep leaving that network, the operator will have no option but to provide good service, or go under,” in one of the monthly sessions of the Telecoms Consumer Parliament.

It is competition, not prestige, that has driven growth in the industry. Coverage of telecoms networks is a huge advantage in the fight to sign up subscribers. The more widespread an operator’s network is, the higher chance it has of signing up more subscribers than say, an operator that has a smaller spread. And the numbers have been climbing.

From a mere 450,000 active subscribers in 2001, there is an estimated 13 million. At the end of this year, there will be at least 20 million, says the NCC. The commission believes that this figure could even be surpassed. And to drive further growth, it is going to allow for unified service from next year.

Moreover, with better regulation of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and growth in the number and scale of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the communications sector is being prepared to offer robust services. People have noticed what the commission has done. Commendations have been coming in trainloads.

Nigerians are always setting the achievements that have been recorded in the telecoms sector in the last five years as standard regulators in other industries, or would be regulators, ought to attain. Operators and consumers of services in different sectors of the economy have demanded that regulators along the line of the NCC should be established to pilot affairs in their sectors. This is not for nothing, as evidences point to well articulated policies that have engendered growth and created competition. All these have been to the benefit of the consumer.

Importantly, the commission has given Nigerians a voice in determining the kind of service they get, and to some extent, at what price. Criticisms over quality of service that were strident in the initial roll out period of phone networks, have given way to better understanding of the sector. The Consumer Parliament has ensured consumers appreciate the problems operators are facing, just as operators have been made to understand that Nigerians deserve better services, at even more affordable rates.

As Nigeria is being gradually prepared to participate fully in the Information Age, where access to communication services is taken as given, the commission is poised to ensure that no Nigerian will be spoilt for choice over which communications services they will use. They deserve it, after waiting so long.