Subscribers lament outage of service
Millions of subscribers, particularly of MTN, have cried out over disconnection from calls and internet services by telecom service providers.
This followed the expiration of the February 28 deadline for all subscribers to link their Sims to the National Identification Number, NIN.
The subscribers lamented that they had been cut off from all services since the Wednesday expiration deadline.
Our findings show that the outage, which began around 2 pm on Wednesday, has lasted more than six hours without an end in sight.
As of the time of filing this report, our correspondent confirmed that millions of Nigerians, could neither make a call nor use the Internet with the MTN network.
Meanwhile, MTN has blamed the outage on fibre cuts and confirmed that it suffered a glitch that has affected its services across the country.
As of 8 pm on Wednesday, MTN said there was no network for calls. In a statement, it blamed the service outage on multiple fibre cuts which affected voice and data services.
The giant telecommunications provider, which said its engineers were working to restore services, said:
“You have been experiencing challenges connecting to the network due to a major service outage caused by multiple fibre cuts, affecting voice and data services.
“Our engineers are working hard to resolve this, with services gradually being restored in some areas.
“We apologise for the inconvenience and ask for your patience and understanding as the team works to restore full service as soon as possible.”
Recall that the Nigerian Communications Commission yesterday ruled out an extension of the February 28, 2024, deadline for the linkage of Subscriber Identity Module cards to National Identification Numbers.
As a result, telecommunication companies have been directed to bar 12 million lines that have not been linked to the owners’ NINs after the expiration of the deadline.
The Director of Public Affairs, NCC, Reuben Mouka, who confirmed the development on Wednesday, reaffirmed the NCC’s stance.
“We already issued a public notice in this regard and all the information. If there was an extension, NCC would have communicated that. But as far as I know, there is no extension,” he said.
THE VANGUARD
