Users demand compensation as MTN restores internet service after 8 hours of downtime 

MTN Nigeria has announced the restoration of its services that prevented customers from making calls and using internet services on both mobile and FibreX, its fibre broadband services. The announcement comes after more than eight hours of network outage. 

According to a statement on Friday morning via its network support channel, MTN Nigeria said all services are back, with full restoration complete. The operator also apologised for the prolonged network downtime that caused millions of Nigerians to lose time and resources.

“We’re Back Online! We sincerely apologise for the challenges where some customers experienced difficulty using our services. The issue has been resolved, and services are fully restored,” it said in the X post. 

MTN added that customers who are still having issues connecting to the internet via mobile and FibreX should restart their devices to restore full network and internet connectivity. 

On Thursday night, MTN Nigeria confirmed a network outage affecting voice and internet services availability across some parts of several key states, including Lagos, Oyo, Rivers, Delta, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It noted that customers in affected areas may experience temporary service disruptions. 

Prior to the operator’s update, subscribers across the affected states have started reporting difficulties making voice calls, sending text messages, and accessing the internet via mobile data and FibreX. The widespread network outage comes at a time when having access to the internet is more than just sending messages or scrolling feeds on social media platforms. 

For MTN customers who are business owners, e-hailing drivers, online vendors and remote workers whose operations and deliveries are facilitated via internet connection, the network outage is more than just being unable to access the internet. It amounts to loss of time and earnings and limits customer protection. 

Also Read: MTN Nigeria clarifies airtime compensation is for poor network quality, not data depletion.

Nigerians react, demand compensation from MTN 

Amid the prolonged network outage, MTN Nigeria customers in affected regions took to social media to express their dissatisfaction and how the downtime affected their activities and deliveries.

The irony of the development is that the longest MTN Nigeria network outage came during Customer Service Week, an occasion celebrated during the first full week of October to celebrate the important role that customer support plays in the everyday life of a business. 

While customers demand significant airtime and data compensation for time lost, it makes sense in consideration of how the network disruption will have an impact on about-to-expire mobile data. During network downtime, active hourly or daily internet data bundles, social media packages, and timed subscriptions continue to count down and then expire during the process while services remain unavailable.

An X user, Emmauelbasy, expressed how the outage affected people with international project deliveries.

“A lot of people who have international gigs, especially in the US time zone, might lose their jobs with this outage. This is not good at all.”

Another, Yua, expressed his dissatisfaction at being out of internet service on his multiple SIM cards and FibreX router. 

“MTN don use my eye see shege today. On both phones, I’ve been unable to connect to the Internet since 1:00 p.m. or thereabouts. The network bar keeps going empty. In fact, currently, I’m connected to my friend’s hotspot. This means I’ll be offline again anytime soon. My router is also misbehaving. This is so annoying!”

Former Presidential aide Bashir Ahmed joined the reactions on X, saying, “MTN, fix your network.”

On his part, an X user, ProjectDev, advised remote workers to always have a backup or independent network to fall back on when mobile operators experience technical challenges. 

“As a remote worker specifically in tech with your independent business, make sure you have a plethora of ISPs to work with. One network going down shouldn’t mean your work goes down too.”

In its service restoration announcement, MTN didn’t mention a compensation measure for customers affected by the network disruption, raising questions about customer justice and ethical standards.