Nigerians find alternative as call, SMS tariffs are to increase

Many Nigerians do not yet know that soon their network providers, under the Association of the Licensed Telecommunication Operations of Nigeria (ALTCON) have written the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for a proposed increase in tariffs on calls, text, and data services by 40 per cent.

The association cited the increased cost of doing business and worsening inflation in the country as its reasons for the proposal.

ALTCON proposed call price will rise from N6.4 per minute to N8.95, while SMS/text message price will rise from N4 per text to N5.61.

“This proposal is outrageous,” Okon Edeth, a Rivers State student, lamented. “What’s this country turning into?”

If that is not enough, the federal government’s recent imposition of a five per cent excise charge on telecommunication services to cater to some sections of the health sector has added to the telecommunication industry’s burden of many taxes and levies.

The telecommunication tax is equivalent to a minimum of one kobo per second for phone calls to boost the funds required to finance free healthcare for vulnerable groups in the country. The tax is contained in the National Health Insurance Authority Bill 2021, recently signed by the President.

“Must they increase everything in Nigeria, even the call and SMS we’re managing?” Jane Eze, a local primary school teacher in Imo State, frowned. “How can we afford these increments?”

Unfortunately, in Nigeria, it is not only the cost of telecommunication services that is increasing. The cost of electronic gadgets, food, clothes, healthcare, and transportation, are increasing too. Sometimes, when the cost of these goods and services increases, their qualities decrease.

Most Nigerians believe that the taxation, which is unreasonably high, is not the problem, but the lack of appropriate use of the taxes for what they are meant for. Other Nigerians believe that with the high cost of living and poverty rate in the country, the telecommunication taxes are unnecessary and a way of punishing citizens.

“The government and telecom operators should better look for other productive ways of running their businesses,” Akem Alabi, an Ogun shoemaker, said. “This is uncalled for.”

Okon Edeth, Jane Eze, Akem Alabi are not alone in their reservations and fears about the proposed hike in the prices of the calls and text messages they make every day. Just like them, they are tens of millions of other Nigerians whose the proposed hikes are threatening their connections and contacts with people who matter to them.

This situation has resulted in a massive search for alternative ways of making calls by many Nigerians. In their quests for these alternatives, many apps popped up, which are looking promising to their needs.

“But the one that stood out for me, which I’ve been using for a week now is Dingtone app,” Jane Eze said. “My family and friends are using it too. Calls and SMS are now cheaper for us.”

Dingtone is a phone service provider designed to be easy to use from a mobile device and offers a simple and clean interface for its users to make “free calls and texts” with a second phone number that is registered in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and more countries and areas while cutting down on phone bills. It was founded in the United States in 2012 and originally launched as a VoIP application for voice calling and messaging without a SIM card, allowing users to call and message through end-to-end encryption. Dingtone has been one of the world’s leaders in the VoIP telephone industry because of its solid market foundation and wide range of users in North America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa.

Currently listed in top-grossing apps in the country, Dingtone owners said Nigeria is the first choice for them to open the African market, and they are out to provide phone services to Nigerians as a solution to cut down phone bills, promote economic growth, and bring closer connections for immigrants and their family members.

The Vice President of Product at Dingtone, Tiger Liu, said they are targeting the market because Nigeria is the most influential and largest economy in Africa, in the context of growing international trade, and because of the demand for international numbers in the country is surging.

He noted that Dingtone users could make free local and international calls among 30 million Dingtone users, as long as they and their friends both have the Dingtone app. He further noted that there is no roaming fees or hidden charges.

Liu urged Nigerians to invite their family and friends to join Dingtone and enter the world of free talking and texting.

“Stop paying for expensive phone minutes and text messages. With Dingtone, you can make free or cheap phone calls to anyone, anywhere in the world over WiFi and 3G/4G data networks without using any phone minutes,” Liu said. “You could call any mobile/landline phone numbers in over 200 countries at super low rates.”

According to the World Population Review, Nigeria’s 2021 population is pegged at 216,746,934, making it the sixth most populated country in the world after China, India, the USA, Indonesia, and Pakistan. Unfortunately, with this explosive population and economic potential, Nigeria has been labelled the poverty capital of the world.

Increasing phone call and SMS tariffs, just the way the government and corporate establishments are increasing taxes and prices of basic goods and services, is what many low-income Nigerians consider a move to impoverish them more.

But since most Nigerians are smart people, they always look for ways to survive.

“As long as these proposed increments in telecom services are concerned,” Jane Eze said, “Dingtone is there, and it’s serving me better.”