Aug 1 2003

Nigeria's MTN has again sought the patience and understanding of its subscribers nationwide for the service interruptions experienced on its network recently. According to Afam Edozie, the company’s chief marketing and strategy officer, the service interruptions are not intentional. “These interruptions are sequel to ongoing upgrades and we apologize most sincerely to our subscribers for any inconveniences they may have suffered”.

Edozie added that the durations of the interruptions are gradually reducing as the organisation now carries out significant work on such upgrades at night. “Notwithstanding the risk of night-time implementation, we have since resorted to carrying out these upgrades by day as well as night, such that down-times and interruptions can be as brief as possible”.

The company, he said, has just installed a second mobile switching centre in Asaba and yet another in Kano, bringing to 13, its total number of switches in Nigeria. The others are located in Lagos (5), Abuja (2), Ibadan and Port Harcourt (2).

While enhancing its switching capacity, the company, Edozie added, has recently commenced the construction of the second phase of Y’helloBahn, its microwave transmission backbone, to similarly enhance its transmission capacity. This second phase to which it is committing US$60 million is expected to serve as back-up to the 3,400 kilometre Y’helloBahn phase one, in the event of failure or service disruption. “Though construction of the second phase of Y’helloBahn is expected to take several months, we expect to see continuous improvements into the future as different segments are completed, month-on-month”.

The company, explained Edozie, has lately also signed a contract with the Harris Corporation of the US to help boost the quantity of transmission especially between Lagos and the South Eastern States. “When this is implemented, we will be able to accommodate close to four times the call volume that is routed between Lagos and the heavily subscriber-populated cities in the South East.”

“We are very positive that the combination of these efforts will lead to very significant improvements in quality of service in the months to come”, he assured. “We crave the patience and understanding of our subscribers and assure all that in the months to come, the frequency and duration of network service interruptions will gradually reduce”.

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