MTN Nigeria has, again, apologised to all its subscribers for the network outage experienced on October 9, in which customers were neither able to make and receive calls nor use their data services.
In a video message sent to its subscribers and published on its website on Sunday, Olutokun Toriola, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, also announced a compensation for customers.
According to Toriola, in addition to extending the validity of all time-bound plans by 24 hours, the telecoms operator has also refunded the data and airtime that they used between 12 noon and 7 pm on Saturday, October 16.
He said: “Last Saturday, we had an outage that left our customers without a connection for several hours. On behalf of the entire MTN team, I want to start with a heartfelt apology. We are truly sorry for the disruption this caused for so many in our MTN family.
“We know that millions of people rely on us to stay connected to their loved ones, to manage their businesses, to coordinate their lives. We take that responsibility, and privilege, very seriously. That’s why we are putting new measures in place to make sure we never experience anything like last Saturday again.
“Our technical teams have traced the cause of the problem to an error that shifted all our 4G customers onto the 3G band. This overloaded the 3G band, causing a domino effect that impacted the whole network. Our engineers were able to resolve the problem.
“I know that recently other technology companies suffered outages. I want to reassure you that last Saturday’s event is in no way connected to those. This wasn’t sabotage, it was a regrettable error.
“While we work to strengthen our network to prevent further disruptions of any kind, we wanted to find a way to say sorry. Something more than extending the validity of all time-bound plans by 24 hours, which we did as soon as service was restored.
“So, while we can’t give you back the time you lost last Saturday, we can give you back what you spent yesterday. Every customer on the MTN network has received a refund for the data and airtime that they used between 12 noon and7 pm yesterday. We hope it shows how much we value our customers. You truly are our most important focus.”
