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.
PUNCH
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