The Use of Licensing to Promote Competition among Telecom Operators and the Growth of Mobile Telecommunication Networks in Nigeria, 2011-2022

Abstract

Many practitioners and investors have praised the use of licensing to enhance competition in the telecom sector due to its real effects on the Nigerian economy. However, since 2011, subscribers in the industry have had a mixed experience with the license issue due to problems with telecom companies' exploitative tendencies and antics, which make it difficult for customers to acquire reliable and reasonably priced telecoms services. With a focus on the institutional and legal safeguards put in place by the government to ensure that the operators abide by the licensing and regulation powers granted to them by the law, the study essentially examines how licensing affects competition among telecom operators and the expansion of mobile telecom networks in Nigeria. The paper's methodology adopted the documentary approach, and the data were ostensibly gathered from secondary sources and examined in terms of substance. Neo-liberal theory of the state provided a sufficient theoretical foundation for the examination of the study. The paper's findings demonstrate that while the expansion of Nigeria's mobile telecom networks is aided by the use of licensing to promote competition among telecom operators, consumers' access to affordable and high-quality telecommunications services is restricted by the exploitative tendencies and antics of telecom companies. The paper's suggestions were based on these findings, and one of them was that Telecommunications service tariffs must always be cost-oriented and reflect the actual costs borne by operators to provide the services in question.