“Whilst the Commission is happy with this phenomenal growth recorded in the industry, especially in active voice subscriptions, we believe that the next critical phase is to ensure that everyone – wherever they live, and whatever their circumstances – have access to the benefits of broadband and this can only happen with the pervasive deployment of broadband infrastructure and services across the country considering the potential of broadband as a key enabler of national productivity, economic growth and development, social inclusion and cultural enrichment. “The affordability and accessibility of broadband services however is largely determined by the prices that are charged for those services. Therefore ensuring that prices charged for retail broadband and data services are cost based in line with international best practice is critical to the deployment and uptake of broadband and data services in Nigeria,” he stressed. Danabatta added that whilst addressing market dominance issues in the upstream, wholesale markets is one of the ways to facilitate competitive price levels in retail broadband access and service markets, saying that it is possible that such action may not be a sufficient constraint on pricing in all segments of a retail broadband market, “as such some form of ex-ante regulation of retail prices is appropriate or even necessary.”

Source: The Guardian January 18, 2018 04:30 UTC