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Mixed reports on MTN connectivity issues

Paula Gilbert
By Paula Gilbert, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 19 Aug 2016
MTN's network has been affected by prolonged connectivity issues for the third time this year.
MTN's network has been affected by prolonged connectivity issues for the third time this year.

MTN says voice and data service on its network in South Africa have been fully restored, but customers are still complaining they cannot access the network.

Yesterday afternoon, MTN issued a statement saying its engineers were investigating voice and data connectivity issues affecting some of its subscribers across the country.

At around 6pm, MTN South Africa's Twitter account announced the issue had been identified and engineers were hard at work finalising a resolution.

"Most of the customers that were affected are now connecting to the network. We apologise for any inconvenience caused," the company tweeted shortly after.

At almost 9pm, @MTNza tweeted: "MTN would like to confirm that the network connectivity disruption has been resolved and voice [and] data service have been fully restored.

"All customers are back online. Please turn your device off and on again for connection. We apologise for the inconvenience caused," a follow up tweet read.

However, a number of Twitter users responded to the tweet saying their service was still affected. Scott Croney tweeted: "NO WE NOT!! Done all the necessary but still no service." Sandra Teixeira tweeted: "Not all customers are back online. I am on day three of no service shown on my phone."

This morning, Twitter user Dosius Bald ?was still experiencing issues, saying: "It has now been over 24hrs without network, can you please tweet me with an update on the situation? #MTN #AngryClient."

The latest network issue follows a 48-hour downtime in February that affected one million voice, SMS and data customers. The network was once again hit by troubles in May when users experienced data connectivity issues.

Also in May, MTN South Africa CEO Mteto Nyati announced the telco would invest R12 billion in improving its network in the next financial year to improve voice, data and fixed broadband experience for customers.

By the time of publication, MTN had not responded to questions about the cause of the latest voice and data connectivity issues.

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