The nation’s largest telecoms company, MTN Nigeria, has raised the call rate on its pulse bundle to N13.8 per minute from N7.8 per minute, which represents a 76.92 per cent increase.

This forms part of the telecoms operators’ upward review of prices following the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approval of a 50 per cent tariff hike for the industry.

The telco has also increased its SMS rate to N6 from N4, and is likely to increase the cost of its data bundles even though the company had earlier apologized yesterday for increasing one of the bundles.

In a statement, MTN Nigeria apologised for increasing the price of its 15 gigabytes (GB) weekly data bundle by 200 per cent. The telecommunications provider had initially raised the cost of the plan from N2,000 to N6,000 as part of a broader tariff adjustment.

However, MTN acknowledged in a statement that it was a mistake, following public outcry. “To our 15G digital bundle lovers, you dey vex. We know,” the statement reads.

“We know how upsetting it must have been to suddenly wake up to a 200% increase on your favourite digital bundle.

“We could share several reasons, and provide explanations, but omo, all that one na story. “We don cast. We get it and admit it. Let’s just say na mistake.”