Millions barred from calls, SMS, data as MTN experience service hitch

Many MTN Nigeria subscribers across the country could not make voice calls, send SMS or use their data as the telecom operators experienced service hitch for most part of Saturday.

The service hitch which began around noon cut off many of the 77.53million subscribers on the network as they tried endlessly to connect their loved ones and clients.

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The situation forced some of the MTN subscribers with alternative lines to switch to those lines to link up with friends and family.

MTN didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on what actually caused the hitch.

But a message by one of the company’s spokespersons Funso Aina simply read:” Yello! Some of customers are having difficulty connecting to the network today (Saturday). We’re looking into this and are truly sorry for any inconvenience caused.”

It would be recalled that MTN, the largest telecom provider in Nigeria, had in June notified its subscribers of service disruption due to the rising insecurity in parts of the country.

This year, Nigerians have had to battle kidnappings, clashes between farmers and herders, mass abductions of students and armed robberies.

“Sadly, we must inform you that with the rising insecurity in different parts of Nigeria, service delivery to your organization may be impacted in the coming days. This means that in some cases, our technical support team may not be able to get to your site and achieve optimum turnaround time in fault management as quickly as possible,” MTN said in the message.