MTN, a leading mobile telecommunication network in Africa, has explained the decision to carry out a ‘network freeze’ during Saturday’s presidential election. It is the largest telecom operator in Nigeria, with over 89 million active subscriptions.
The telco giants announced that the first network freeze would commence on the 24th of February and end on March 3rd, while the second freeze would begin on the 10th of March and end on the 15th.
The announcement has caused some worry among Nigerians, and the scheduling of the freeze on election day has raised some eyebrows.
MTN, however, has explained that there is no need to panic because a network freeze does not mean a total shutdown of the network.
The company explained in a notice that they don’t implement changes on their network during critical times to minimise the chances of an outage. “Keeping the network as is, is a common practice in telecom referred to as Network Freeze”, MTN said.
Regarding this awareness, below are reasons for the network freeze and what its users should look forward to when it takes effect.
A network freeze is an occasional practice among telecommunication companies. The process is intended to minimize the chance of network burnouts or outages over a period of time. These outages normally happen because activities like upgrades, maintenance or spontaneous works could disrupt the customers’ experience.
Read More; How MTN almost ruined Valentine’s day for Nigerians
MTN’s recent network issues
MTN was in the news for the wrong reasons on valentine’s day after a network disruption angered its customers, many of whom could not place or receive calls nor use the internet service due to the outage.
The company apologised on Twitter saying “Today, of all days, you couldn’t count on us to keep you seamlessly connected with the people, places, businesses, and things that matter to you. Words cannot express how sorry we are sorry for the disruption we caused. The issue has been resolved and services restored. You matter to us and we will never stop showing you how much.”
The South-African telecom company has had a series of network issues in the past. This happened by its subscribers received an SMS stating when and time it is expected to begin, while some occurred as impromptu without its users being informed.
Four months ago, MTN Nigeria broadcasted that it would be conducting a system upgrade on November 8, 2022, and the network provider’s service would be disrupted. This came at a period subscribers were complaining of poor network.
However, consent from Network Head is usually required to freeze the network with details of allowed and not allowed activities along with duration and areas where the freeze is necessary and then be relayed to concerned departments in other to ensure core compliance.
Network Freezes are common practice among telcos to ensure excellent service over a specific period. Some mobile network operators implement a freeze on their network during holidays like Eid Festivals, Christmas, Easter, and other holidays.
MTN’s decision to do this during the elections will ensure stability in the network during the election as the operators are meant to suspend all activities that could cause interruptions. Recall that MTN suffered network disruption on Valentine day, much to the anger of its users.
According to a Nairametrics report, MTN said “About the network freeze, we don’t implement changes on our network during critical times to minimize the chance of an outage. Keeping the network as it is, is a common practice in telecoms referred to as network freeze.”
Read More; MTN gains most customers as mobile subscriptions in Nigeria hit a record 222.5 million in 2022
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