NITEL prepaid platform collapses
By Everest Amaefule (Punch Newspapers)
 24th OCT 2006

The prepaid platform installed by the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited about two years ago has collapsed. As a result of this development, all customers of the first national telecoms operator have been migrated to the company’s post-paid platform.

The prepaid platform, which had been having problems from the beginning, was installed by a British firm, Redwood. It was one of the star projects which the former management contractor of the company, Pentascope International of Netherlands, claimed credit for before it was sacked by the Federal Government in February 2005.

Struggling with the problem of huge debts from defaulting customers, NITEL had seen in the prepaid billing platform an opportunity to reduce its debt and debtor profile. It also found it necessary to install the prepaid platform as a way of checking inaccurate and crazy bills that always put it in contention with its customers.

To tackle the problem of huge interconnect debts on its network, NITEL had also resorted to cutting over some calling card operators and Private Telecommunications Operators to the prepaid platform. The Managing Director of the company, Mr. Albert Mashi, explained that this was necessary so that operators who were used to owing NITEL would pay for their services in advance.

He explained to our correspondent, “As a way of preventing bad debt, PTOs shall be offered prepaid wholesale partition on NITEL prepaid platform. “This will enable us to monitor their debt profile while offering them a competitive tariff. They do not need to make huge investments on platform provision.”

It was not certain what could have been the immediate cause of the recent collapse of the prepaid platform, but sources said it was originally conceived for calling cards before it was upgraded as a general prepaid system. It was also learnt that the billing platform collapsed as result of the non-payment of maintenance fees to the company that handled the installation. When contacted, NITEL’s spokesman, Mr. Bala Abdukadir, declined to comment on the collapse of the prepaid platform, but confirmed that all subscribers were being migrated to the postpaid billing system.

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