Subscribers blast MTN over SIM suspension, threaten to opt for other Networks

Hundreds of MTN subscribers in Warri, Delta State as early as 7:00am Wednesday December 2, besieged the Warri-Sapele Road Office, Adjacent to Ginuwa Junction in anger, raining abuses on the mobile network over perceived incompetence and inconsistency in SIM registration exercise, Fresh Angle International can report.

Our Correspondents who were at the Warri MTN Office as early as 7:30am report that the customers were shut out of the gate and it took workers of the mobile company up to 8:30am before they addressed the customers, most of whom claimed they had done their SIM registration at-least twice in the last three months and messages acknowledging their successes dropping on their mobile phones.

Some of the customers noted that they only did their SIM registration on Monday November 30, 2015 at the MTN Office in Warri, while a couple of others stated that they were asked to text “Activate” to “799” after which the mobile network further directed them to text “STATUS” to “799” and MTN promptly responded via a text message that their information have been completed, only for them to observe Wednesday morning (December 2) that they could no longer make calls or send short messages.

Our Correspondents report that the customers became agitated when 12 of them were let into the MTN Office and a couple of uniform Policemen allowed access to the MTN Office without taking cognizance of those that came first.

More annoying to the customers was the delay in attending to those who were allowed into the office due to poor network from the mobile service providers.

The Policemen who stood behind the company security gate with guns further aggravated the customers when they opened the MTN back gate to allow customers who appeared to have reached out to them and officials of MTN access into the office despite coming late.

There was a near breakdown of law and order until an official of the company randomly gave out tally numbers to the aggrieved customers to calm their frayed nerves.

An alleged agent of MTN (name undisclosed) took advantage of the frustrating rush of the customers to collect N500 each to register their SIM by the side of the company’s office, with a directive on the customers to switch off their phones till about 7:00pm later in the day before their SIMs will be reactivated/registered.

The alleged MTN agent attending to one of the subscribers close to MTN office

As at the time of this report, it was not known if the alleged MTN agent’s registration would work, but some of the customers spoken to explained that they would rather risk payment of the N500 to the agent than wait for fruitless hours without attending to their businesses, threatening to dump MTN for rival networks if the situation is not resolved once and for all.

MTN Nigeria has been having a running battle with the NCC over the 5.2 billion dollars fine slammed on them by the latter for failure to meet the deadline set for mobile service providers to register SIMs of her customers.

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