By The Telecoms Executive and Regulator Forum (TEFR) organised by the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, ATCON has opened up more business opportunities from OTT platform to telecoms operators in Nigeria.
Before now the OTTs have come under attack by the operators over lost of revenue from voice call and text messages as more innovations on the OTT platforms endear telecoms subscribers to the use of OTT for communication.
The narrative changed as it is now used for business communications following the introduction of WhatsAPP for Business.
Discussions among panelist at the 2019 edition of the TERF held in Lagos, South West Nigeria revealed that with more broadband internet at the disposal of the subscribers, the operators will be beneficiaries as more consumers get to spend more time consuming huge data on the OTT platform.
Panel discussants at the 2019 edition of the TERF held in Lagos, South West Nigeria revealed that the OTTs have been urge profits across the world from local economies without even the government let alone the local operators making profit from the activities of the OTTs.
In an opening remarks chairperson of one of the panel, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Funke Opeke said that the OTT provides a lot of over the top services and that they are the largest in the industry saying that they actually dwarf the economy.
Rolling out statistics of how much the OTTs are making across the globe, she said that some countries have started taxing the use of the social media noting that the challenges that Nigeria has is how to play in the global space.
She called on the operators to development local solutions that will compete with global OTTs adding that while it is the duty of government to protect its citizens from the impact of the OTTs, it should also engage them to come over to avoid muscling local players.
Contrary to the perception in the industry, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Medallion Communications Limited, Engr. Ike Nnamani said that the industry is actually making money from the OTTs due to their positive impact on the sector saying that MTN Nigeria has realized that.
He revealed that some countries in West Africa had approached him to develop a solution that will enable them to block OTTs but declined saying that what Nigeria should be asking for is a local presence of the OTT just like as Indonesia did and the hosting their server in their country.
Nnamani said halting the activities of OTTs will be going against global trend adding that for Thailand its concern is the impact it is having on their broadcast industry, which has resulted into the pirating of broadcast content.
Managing Director, Vodacom Business Nigeria, Mr. Wale Odeyemi said that local OTT players should be encouraged by government by providing a fair playing ground for them adding that the local OTTs should work with the telecos to develop local products.
Managing Director, Onichie Amasiani said that the huge business opportunities in OTT has opened it up for regulation in five continents saying that in India and the US there are no separate regulators for telecoms and broadcast but that in Nigeria there are separate regulators.
He said that government need to work on the regulatory role of the NCC and NBC particularly as it concerns video streaming saying that OTTs are also doing video streaming which go unregulated.
Head Media Management of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Mr. Sonny Aragba-Akpore said that the NCC gave out the Infracos license to improve broadband internet access across Nigeria saying that when there is abundance of high speed data across the country it will be reflected on more demand for use on the OTTs platform.
According to him, the telecoms operators will be the one that will benefit from the explosion of the use of OTTs platform by the subscribers noting that that means more revenue for them.
He urged the operators to think out of the box and take advantage of the business opportunities in OTTs platform that the data quest will be providing for the industry stressing that OTT will thrive more with more broadband access.
Earlier in an open address, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta said that there are prospects for OTTs in the country and that the prospects of OTTs in Nigeria are not limited to OTTs stating that OTTs are increasingly supporting future service model that are rapidly expanding across multiple communications and digital service domain.
Represented by the Director, Policy Competition and Economic Analysis, Mr.Mohammed Babajika, said the growth of smart phones that are affordable, pushes the demand for broadband needed in the OTTs platform.
He said that there are OTTs challenges which include data protection,privacy issues,security concerns,interconnection and network infrastructure usage.
In his welcome address, the President of ATCON, Mr. Teniola Olusola said the
forum is one of ATCON’s flagship initiatives for the telecom and ICT industry in Nigeria designed for the purpose of creating a veritable opportunity for key industry players to interact with the industry regulators with the aim of building a continual good working relationship between industry players and the regulators.
Isaiah Erhiawarien
