MTN Ghana has justified the 50 percent increase in fibre broadband and turbonet bundle prices.
The network company from January 4, introduced new rates of Fibre broadband and Turbonet bundle prices, increasing by almost 50% with 90 days validity.
Customers of MTN Ghana and Ghanaians in general have since Tuesday complained about the astronomical increase in data prices of fibre broadband and turbonet bundles.
But the Chief Enterprise Business Officer of MTN, Sam Addo, explained to Citi Business News, what went into the decision to increase the data cost.
“As a committed operator, we surveyed the market and we realized that our prices were significantly out of the market reach and to make sure that everybody has enough space to play, we took the decision internally to make sure that we align with the market rates so that all the operators can actively compete on the market and that the market will get the opportunity to grow. The customer will benefit because it will not be a discussion of which price but it will be a discussion of who has the best quality and who gives the best service.”
Before the implementation of the new tariffs, GHS300 worth of data amounted to 393.58GB and 332.57GB for Mtn Fibre broadband and MTN TurboNet respectively.
But now, the same amount will give customers 231.08GB on MTN Fibre Broadband and 190.23GB TurboNet.
Already, some stakeholders like the West Africa Regional Director for Cuts International, Appiah-Kusi Adomako, has attributed the ability of telecommunication giant to increase the cost for their data without recourse to public concerns to their market power.
But the network company, in defending its stance, said this development is solely in the best interest of its customers and the industry as a whole.
Mr. Addo further explained that the decision had nothing to do with the Significant Market Provider (SMP) ruling, adding that “I believe the SMP ruling states clearly that it is on the mobile services. This is for fixed services so it has nothing to do with SMP”.