In the wake of recent decision by the Liberian government that it will bring to an end a long running three-day ‘free’ call promotion being offered by the two telecommunication companies operating in the country, many Liberians have strongly dissented the cancellation.
The country’s two leading GSM telecommunication operators, Lonestar Cell MTN and Orange (formerly Cellcom GSM) have been running the three-day ‘free ‘call promotion for over five years now.
A new regulation by the Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA) which outlined a new floor pricing regulation that is due to take effect this week will further increase call per minute and data to US$0.0156 and US$0.0218 per megabyte respectively.
Similarly, the price per data is expected to rise more that 50% from US$1.00 per Gigibite to US$ 2.20 when the new price floor comes into force.
Economists say the latest decision when enforced will be a 100% increment in the existing charge on on-net voice call which gives subscribers a 72-hour open line for just US$1.00.
The Liberian government has been finding sources of revenue to pay salaries for civil servants that are not being paid in time. Liberia current wage bill stands at a little over US$308,000,000.00 annually.
Rational behind new price floors
According to the Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA), telecommunications service users in Liberia enjoy among the lowest prices in West Africa but these low prices come with a high cost for the sustained growth and development of the telecommunications sector and the country.
LTA also pointed out a long running price war between the two GSM mobile operators orange and Lonestar Cell MTN who control nearly one hundred percent of mobile telephone and the data market in Liberia continues to have negative impact on the population in quality service delivery.
It furthered that the implementation of the new tariff will promote efficient and sustainable competition for the benefit of end-users to monitor and prevent abuses of a service provider’s dominant position and to monitor and prevent practices that would limit competition.
The telecommunications regulatory body also opposed that effective competition may be weakened due to “predatory pricing as competitors compete to price each other out of the market”.
Liberians reactions
Reacting to the news that the three days ‘free ‘call will be abolished, several Liberians have been commenting on the action by government to cancel the three days ‘free ‘. Some said the action by LTA ‘undermines’ freedom of speech.
According to them the three days ‘free ‘call serves as one medium where they get information across the country from their relatives and friends who are distances away from them
“I think this will be detrimental to the ordinary Liberians because some of us are used to service”, said Mohammed V. Kanneh a resident of Monrovia.
I use 50 megabits data from three days free call to register my course online at the University of Liberia, if you stop the three days free call what will I do?”, he told a local radio show on Thursday.
“I want the government to find another means to generate revenue but to cancel our three days free is unfair to us the ordinary people”, another Liberian Abraham Dukuly added.
Abraham and other believe the three-day ‘free’ call should not be abolished because it is greatly helping in terms of communication and data.
Blow to UL online registration?
Some students of the state run University of Liberia [names withheld] told LPR correspondent in Paynesville over the weekend that the new price floors will create serious economic burden for their online registration process. They mentioned in an interview with LPR, the three-day ‘free’ call is helping students with their online registration because data from the promotion can be used to go online.
“This is total strangulation for us, we have been using our phone three day free call data to register our courses online since the Weah government introduced online registration”, one female student lamented.
Another female student who also entreated our correspondent not to disclose her identity responded that the University of Liberia does not have free internet service on campus and many of them use the three-day ‘free’ call promotion to make call and go online with the free data promotion.
The University of Liberia in 2018 launched online registration scheme for over 30,000 students attending the university.
Many students usually use mobile data to go online due to the low price of mobile data in Liberia.
Lone star Cell MTN and Cellcom GSM (now Orange Liberia) began offering three-day free call promotion in 2013, which give subscribers a 72 hour unlimited calls With 50 megabit added.
Meanwhile reliably information reaching Liberia Public Radio says the House of Representatives has placed on hold the three-day ‘free’ call termination by LTA until further discussions.
