MTN Ghana (Grudgingly) Accepts Monopoly Charge
The curious timing of the telco’s classification as a significant market player (SMP)
In 2007, when MTN launched in Ghana, it bought into a company with around 50% of the local telecom market.
As far as mergers and acquisitions go, that was the closest thing to being born with a silver spoon.
Since then, MTN Ghana has extended its market leadership. But plans are now underway to clip its bright yellow wings.
Suffering from success
Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) recently classified MTN as a significant market player (SMP), a prelude to introducing policies aimed at slicing up its market share.
Under the provisions of the National Telecommunications Policy (NTP), an operator with 40% or more market share in voice, data or value-added services is considered an SMP.
MTN Ghana is so far ahead of its competitors that, by the letter of the law, it qualifies as an SMP on all 3 fronts.
Nevertheless, the company contested the classification in the Accra High Court, arguing that there had been a “procedural breach”.
But the court dismissed the case, leaving the door open for the NCA to take corrective action.
MTN says that, while it accepts the judgment, it regrets that its concerns remain “unresolved”.
Why now?
MTN will now be compelled to give favourable connection rates to smaller operators and set floor and ceiling pricing on all voice, data, text messages and mobile money subscriptions, among other things.
The NTP was introduced in the mid-2000s, so why it took this long for this section of the policy to be invoked is anyone’s guess.
One explanation for the timing could be that the regulator drew the line at mobile money.
M-Pesa has become the 800-pound gorilla in the Kenyan mobile money space, the NCA might want to avoid a similar situation in Ghana where MTN’s MoMo is on the brink of ubiquity.
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