coder Some MTN subscribers in the
Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
on Wednesday lamented poor
services from the mobile
network operator in the past
few weeks.

The subscribers, who spoke to
journalists in Abuja, said that
they have been experiencing
poor and unreliable services
both in receiving calls and
messages.

They are also complaining of
receiving unsolicited calls and
messages in spite of the fact
that the Nigerian
Communication Commission
(NCC) had warned Mobile
Network Operators (MNOs) to
stop sending such messages
and calls or face sanction of N5
million or N500, 000 per day
for as long as the
contravention persists.

Mrs Justina Sunday, a
subscriber resident of Zuba,
FCT, lamented that for the past
two weeks or more, she had
been finding it difficult to make
or receive calls because of the
poor network by MTN.

“I have
been finding it difficult to
either make or receive calls.

“In fact, some people will say
they have been calling me since
morning, why did I switch off
my phone,?’’ she said.
Sifiso Dabengwa, MTN CEO
She said that although after
trying so many times to make
calls, it would eventually
connect, adding “this can be
frustrating’’.

“We know that there are times
when some of these network
providers have problems with
their network, but it should not
be a regular thing,’’ she said.

Mrs Ogechukwu Udeh, a trader
at Lugbe Market, FCT, told NAN
that she was tired of receiving
calls from MTN that she did not
solicit for, worse still calls came
in languages she could not
understand.

Udeh said that some of the
calls were spoken in Hausa or
some strange languages.

“Please I am appealing to MTN
to stop disturbing me with
such calls,’’ she said.
She added that at times, the
quality of service was so bad
that people would find it
difficult to hear each other’s
conversations.

Mr Johnson Madu, a banker
and resident of Kubwa, said
most of the network lines used
in his office for data was that
of MTN.

“In my place of work, the
major line we use for
accessing the internet is MTN
and the network has been very
poor.

“Sometimes, it takes a while
before you can finish attending
to a customer thereby keeping
the rest people on the queue
waiting. “The most annoying
part of it is that we need the
internet to work,” he said.

Mrs Grace Akinwale, an MTN
subscriber resident in
Gwarinpa, said that her
experience with the provider
had been unpleasant in the
past few weeks.

She said that she loaded her
phone with credit of N1, 200
only for a message to be sent
to her that it was N200. “I had
to quickly call the Call Centre,
because I wanted to use it for
data.

“It was later that my data was
credited but not before I
actually lost about N1, 500
credit sent to me by my
daugther.

“The credit was mistakenly
uploaded in the MTN promo
`yafu yafu’, which is supposed
to last till April 1, but in two
days, I was told it had
finished,’’ she said.
Akinwale said that recently,
receiving calls had been a big
issue as people keep asking if
her phone had problems.

Mr Victor Olajide, a resident of
Lugbe in FCT told newsmen
that he had been receiving
messages from MTN that she
did not ask for.

He said that MTN had been
sending messages asking him
to send stop to 2442 but he
had not done it yet.

“Why can’t MTN stop the
messages themselves instead
of bothering me when I have
many important things to do,’’?
he said.

Mr Joseph Odebala, a civil
servant also said that he was
tired of getting messages and
calls he did not ask for.

“Sometimes when he picks the
numbers they will be speaking
a language I don’t understand
and they say they are waiting
for my response.

“Response
for what, don’t I know what
they are talking about,’’ he said.

He said that he had tried calling
the customer care line but they
put him on hold for very long
time until he got tired.

However, Mr Nuhu Garuba, a
resident of Dawaki, observed
that he never had issues with
his MTN network. He said that
it was a long time in the past
that he had any issues with
connecting his contacts.

Garuba said that he would
always have a backup network
line to substitute the one he
had in case there were
network challenges with any of
the network providers.

Newsmen however, spoke
with an official of MTN in the
Maitama office, Abuja, he said he could not respond to the
issues and advised that the
public relations officer at its
headquarters in Lagos would
be able to response to the
queries. Newsmen made
several calls to the number
given there was no response.

However, Mr Hassan Jamil, the
Chief Technical Officer of MTN
Nigeria, in a statement issued
on Monday in Abuja by NCC
said at an interactive forum
that the problems faced by
service providers were due to
scarcity of FOREX.