Nigeria not satisfied by MTN service

ABUJA - Agence France-Presse

An employee (L) speaks to a customer at an MTN shop in Johannesburg. REUTERS photo

Nigeria’s telecommunications authorities threatened on May 3 to impose sanctions on an affiliate of South Africa’s giant mobile phone service provider MTN over alleged poor service to subscribers.

 The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) issued the warning to MTN Nigeria Communication in a statement.

Subscribers in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital, and its environs have in recent days experienced difficulties using their phones on the MTN network.

But the NCC said that MTN had neither informed its subscribers nor communicated the development to the state-run regulator, as required.

NCC ordered the telecoms firm to provide it with a report on the situation within 24 hours, including details of what was being done “to urgently address the problem.” Failing to respond might result in sanctions the agency added, without elaborating. Officials of MTN were unavailable for comment.

MTN Nigeria has the largest subscriber base in what is Africa’s most populous nation, with more than 90 million customers there.

Turkcell, Turkey’s largest mobile phone operator, filed a suit late in March at the Washington Federal Court against MTN for damages up to $4.2 billion, regarding an operating license in Iran.