Many MTN subscribers in the Federal Housing Estate, Imo Housing Estate & World Bank Estate have lamented poor services from MTN mobile network operator in the past few weeks.
The subscribers, who spoke to journalists in New Owerri, said that they have been experiencing continuous no network, 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.
Mr Cyril Aririguzo, a subscriber resident of Road 7 Exension Federal Housing Estate New Owerri, lamented that in the past one week or more, he 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,?’’ he said. “In my house line we use for accessing the internet is MTN and the network has been very poor.
Aririguzo said that although after trying many times to make calls, it would not eventually connect, adding “this can be frustrating when you are in need or in emergency’’.“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,’’ he said.
Mrs Mbakwe Ike, a trader at World Bank Last round about, New Owerri, told Newsmen 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.
Mbakwe 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.
“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,” she said.
Another person Mr Andy Eze, an MTN subscriber resident in Road 7 Extension, said that his experience with the provider had been unpleasant in the past few weeks.
He said that he 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 friend. According to him, receiving calls had been a big issue as people keep asking if her phone had problems.
Newsmen however, made effort to spoke with officials of MTN in the Naze Road office, Owerri, but could not get access to them or the public relations officer at its headquarters in Owerri so as to be able to response to the queries. Newsmen made several calls to the number given there was no response.