by Isi Esene

The MTN has apologized to its customers for the disruption in its network blaming it on the flood devastation experienced in most parts of the country.

The telecommunications company appealed to stakeholders to exercise patience and understanding for the disruption in ongoing network modernization and swap-out exercise.

Wale Goodluck, the company’s corporate services executive said, “Although the various activities related to MTN’s Network modernization are progressing steadily, we regret, however, that the pace of work has been considerably challenged by the spate of insecurity coupled with the unprecedented flooding being experienced in many parts of the country.”

Goodluck says the task being undertaken by the company is a comprehensive one which is akin to building a new network altogether. According to him, the network modernization will affect 4,000 out of MTN’s 10,000 base-stations all over the country. The project plans to replicate in 9 months what it has accomplished in 6 years.

He reportedly said, “Several swap-outs have reached very advanced stages of completion. The entire network modernization process is a logistic-intensive one and the problem of insecurity has seriously affected the pace of work in some parts of the country. In at least 13 states, flooding has created additional logistic impediments such that the pace of the ongoing network modernization efforts has slowed down.

“We sincerely express our thanks to our customers for their patience. As much as possible, we would stick to our original plan of carrying out the network procedures only at night, in order to minimize disruptions to services. We are doing everything possible, including doubling the work teams, to finalize the project as quickly as possible,” he assured.

He expressed the company’s appreciation to many communities that have given the network modernization engineers support, saying that such support was the needed tonic in the face of the enormous logistic-challenges the project regularly encounters.

At-least, MTN users now know why their calls are not connecting.