MTN heads to court over ‘SMP’ tag

Telecommunication giant, MTN Ghana, has served notice that it is heading to the courts to seek redress on moves to end their dominance in the country’s mobile telephony industry.

Government through the National Communication Authority (NCA) on June 9, 2020, formally notified MTN of its overwhelming ‘Significant Market Power (SMP)’ status in the telecommunications space hence the attempt to break the monopoly.

Since then, the company says it has made several attempts to get the NCA to rescind its decision which has so far proved futile.

The Company in a statement released on Friday, June 26, 2020, stated  that the decision by NCA will have serious repercussions on the company’s growth, and its competitiveness in the telecoms market.

“MTN Ghana has after much consultation, and as a last resort, made the difficult decision to resort to the law courts for redress in the form of a judicial review of NCA’s decision, to ensure the observance of the requirements of procedural fairness.”

The company, however, added that it is not opposed to steps by the Regulator to further enhance the highly competitive industry and is prepared to support it in that regard.

“MTN has over the years shown confidence in the Ghana telecommunications sector, by the continued investment in hitherto undervalued ventures (e.g., rural telephony, broadband services, 4G technology, new innovations, mobile money etc.) to support the development of the industry and to deliver on our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of modern connected life. We have indeed collaborated with the Government over the period to invest in priority projects that have all contributed to our current position in the market. The high proliferation of choice in the Ghanaian telecoms market aided by Mobile Number Portability, Network interoperability, very affordable SIMs and accompanying multiple SIM handsets are all indicators of a free and competitive market,” the statement read.

Adding, “MTN Ghana would like to reiterate that it is not opposed to steps by the Regulator to enhance further the highly competitive Ghana telecoms industry and is indeed prepared to support the Regulator to that end. However, we believe that the regulatory authority must follow the applicable legislation and global industry best practices.”