Recently GhanaCelebrities.Com editor Chris-Vincent Agyapong Febiri has been leading a ‘put them on blast’ effort to attempt to shame service providers in this country who revel in taking their consumers for a ride (basically all of them).
Large corporations are built on one bottom line, increasing profits; but whilst some do this by making their services so good that customers would keep coming back for more- more often than not in this country, the route is to fleece the customer for as long as you can, and they have to keep coming back because the alternatives are probably worse.
Our telecom companies are probably the biggest example of this depraved and immoral business model, which is built on the back of practically robbing the consumer. And aside their exorbitant rates, there are many other tactics and tricks to making money off of us. One is keeping mum when your bundle runs out and charging you at pay-as-you-go rates, another is making ad money by bombarding you with messages you never asked for. Some even charge you when you call them to complain about their crappy services.
So on top of all this, it’s damn near criminal that when through the miracle of technology, we get a new way to do something and not have to pay through the nose for it, these telecom operators scheme with the regulatory body to get rid of it.
MTN and Vodafone and their band of merry little telcos are apparently lobbying the National Communication Authority (NCA) to ban the use of internet apps like Skype, WhatsApp and Viber to make calls. Apparently, not getting to charge Ghanaians IDD rates due to technological advances is affecting their bottom line to the extent that they have to step in and get us back to the days where you cannot talk to your uncle in Philadelphia without checking the call time every five seconds.
Humans innovate because we want to make things better, but you cannot make things better at the expense of corporations’ bottom line, it seems. So these apps which are allowing people to have some respite have to be banned so that the fleecing can continue. It’s so laughably predictable in its revelation of corporate greed that it would be funny if we hadn’t heard that the NCA was considering solutions that would benefit ‘both the operator and the consumer’.
That’s an oxymoron. Those two are diametrically opposite, which means whatever benefits one automatically detriments the other, and vice versa. A compromise can be reached, but the relationship is so imbalanced that any deal that cuts 50-50 benefits the corporation anyway.
The NCA is looking for a solution for a problem that is not there. The internet is here, and it’s here to stay, so any move curbing its natural expansion is a stupid move to begin with. You want more people using the internet and its resultant benefits, not less; and curbing new media to benefit old media seems like the sort of short sighted mentality that has this country in a mess. If MTN and their cronies are so worried about losing the revolution, maybe they should employ more of their filthy profits towards innovating, to keep up. That’s how this wonderful thing we call technology works!
When the telcos came out with the Mobile Money technology, infringing on the territory of the banks, they didn’t seem to mind that innovation so much, even though it was hurting the bottom line of others. That’s how a free market works, you innovate or you die.
It’s amazing that this is even a conversation that has to be held, based on no motive other than robbing consumers. We have so many problems with the little we have, from crappy speeds to expensive bundles- it seems incredibly short sighted to limit its growth. The world is moving, fast, and new things are coming out each day. We need to latch on and enjoy as much as we can, not limit it at the expense of the many just for the benefit of the few at the top.
Unfortunately, the dynamics of the cash economy entails those with means usually get what they want, and it’s up to us to rail against that till the day we lose our voices.
Read the NCA statement on the telcos proposal for internet calls to be banned.
This post was published on May 10, 2016 6:33 PM
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