‘Fibre Cuts Affecting Voice, Data Services’, MTN Explains Outage

The majority of Wednesday's network outage that affected MTN Nigeria's users was brought on by "multiple fibre cuts," according to the telecommunications operator.

As of December 2023, MTN boasted 87,038,768 users, the biggest share of any licenced mobile network operator (MNO) in the country at 38.79%, according to figures released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

For hours on end on Wednesday, the 87 million MNO customers had trouble making and receiving calls, which gave rise to speculations that the NCC had carried out its threat to block users who aren't linked to their National Identity Numbers (NINs) by February 28, 2024.

Numerous users found themselves trapped, and some went to the MTN office closest to them in order to receive explanations.
However, MTN, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), attributed the situation to “multiple fibre cuts”.
The message stated, "A major service outage caused by multiple fibre cuts affecting voice and data services is the reason you have been having trouble connecting to the network."

"Our engineers are putting a lot of effort into fixing this, and services are being gradually restored in some regions.

"We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and kindly request your understanding and patience while the team works to promptly restore full service."

In the meantime, telecom service providers were ordered by the NCC on Wednesday to stop serving customers who haven't linked their phone numbers to their NIN by February 28, 2024, at the latest.
At the 45th Kaduna International Convention, the direction was given by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Aminu Maida, through the Director of Public Affairs, Ruben Mouka., he insisted that as matter of critical national security, telecom consumers must link their NIN to their SIM cards.