Etisalat battles MTN over promo

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday struck out
an application by telecommunication company, MTN,
seeking a long adjournment in the suit filed against it
by its competitor, Etisalat.
Etisalat had headed for the court over an allegation
that the Nigerian Communications Commission was
giving MTN market advantage over it.
The plaintiff is aggrieved with the MTN’s “Family and
Friends” promo, which offers a call rate of 11 kobo
per second to eight MTN subscribers and two non-
MTN subscribers.
Etisalat argued that MTN’s “Family and Friends”
promo was launched in violation of NCC’s regulation,
adding that the promo package was restricting
outgoing call traffic to smaller operators “by pricing
on-net tariffs lower so as to make off-net calls
unattractive.”
Etisalat said MTN was posing a threat to its business
survival, adding that if the court did not urgently hear
the suit, its business was liable to being eroded
within a very short time.
Subsequently, Justice Mohammed Idris had, on July
21, granted the application seeking an urgent hearing
of the suit during the court’s long vacation.
But at the resumed hearing on Monday, counsel for
MTN, Olasupo Sasore (SAN), appeared in court with
an application contesting the urgency claimed by
Etisalat.
Sasore argued that contrary to the claim by the
plaintiff, there was nothing urgent in the matter to
warrant it being heard during the court’s vacation.
However, counsel for Etisalat, Kola Awodein (SAN),
told the court that though Sasore only served him
with a copy of the application in the evening of last
week Friday, he had already filed his reply.
Awodein also said that the lawyer representing NCC
in the matter, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), had
pleaded with him that he was just briefed and he
would need time to study the file.
According to him, all the parties had agreed to come
back to court on September 25, 2015.
Following this development, the judge, consequently,
struck out MTN’s application and adjourned till
September 25, 2015 for further hearing.
Etisalat, in the main suit, is seeking a review of a
decision said to be recently taken by NCC allowing 30
per cent differential between MTN’s off-net and on-
net retail mobile voice tariffs.
According to Etisalat, with the said 30 per cent
differential between its off-net and on-net retail
mobile voice tariffs, MTN had been able to create
what is called a “calling club,” an example of which is
its “Family and Friends” promo.