Two of Nigeria’s leading telcos, MTN Nigeria and Globacom have put an end to a 15-year conflict over interconnection fees after GLO consented to pay ₦2 billion in interest rather than the ₦3 billion they had originally requested.
This was disclosed by a source familiar with the negotiations who further said the interconnection debt on which those interests accrued was settled earlier.
We can recall that Glo was faced with the threat of disconnection by MTN Nigeria which Nigeria Communications Commission [NCC] followed it up with 21 days to have it resolved or risk seeing its 61.5 million subscribers blocked from calling MTN lines.
Due to an outstanding debt that Glo owes MTN Nigeria, the recent disconnection procedure started in November 2022. MTN requested and eventually received consent for a disconnection from the NCC in December 2023.
Glo frequently pay far less than the amount it accrued, which caused its debt from interconnection fees to increase over the course of the years. MTN and Airtel Nigeria have threatened to disconnect Glo on several occasions. In 2019, MTN disconnected Glo for five days.