MTN blames poor service on vandalisation

Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) operator, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, has blamed recent poor quality of services on its network to vandalisation of equipment across the country.

The Corporate Services Executive, MTN Nigeria, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, who disclosed this, said the telco is concerned over the repeated vandalisation of its equipment and installations nationwide.

This, the telco also said, its mostly concerned because of the impact this have on the quality of services to its subscribers.

“We have had to contend with what appears to be a steady onslaught of malicious damage to our fibre optic cables in some parts of the country,” she said, stressing, “it’s extremely alarming”.

Mrs. Oyagbola explained that telecoms infrastructure have been installed across the country, at huge cost in terms of labor and capital, for the sole objective of providing a rich and improved bouquet of telecommunications services to the Nigerian people.

“It is disheartening and very concerning that unknown persons would set out to deliberately sabotage these installations and in the process disrupt services for millions of Nigerians,” she lamented.

Mrs. Oyagbola recalls that in the last week alone, “critical fiber optic cables have been maliciously destroyed across two of Nigeria’s major geo-political zones, creating serious problems for users of telecom services.”

These, she noted, include MTN customers and customers of other networks wishing to terminate calls on MTN’s network.

“It is noteworthy that the ICT equipment deployed by MTN at huge cost, services the entire telecoms industry and not just MTN,” Mrs. Oyagbola said.

Further, she expressed immense concern at what appears to be an attempt to short-circuit the gains made so far by the nation in the telecommunications sector and appealed to the Federal Government for assistance in this respect.

While assuring customers and other stakeholders that the telco is reinforcing its private security network across the country especially in the areas that house critical infrastructure, Mrs. Oyagbola appealed to the Nigerians to keep a vigilant over telecom and other infrastructure in their localities.

“Such infrastructure, including base stations, switches and transmission cables, are for the collective benefit of the country and should be seen as such,” she said.

Mrs. Oyagbola equally urged citizens to inform the security agencies promptly if they see any equipment being tampered with, just as she pledged that MTN would continue to strive to provide Nigeria with world-class telecommunications services.

“In circumstances where our installations are damaged, we will strive to ensure that services are restored in the shortest possible time,” she reassured.

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