Revealed! MTN, Airtel, other telcos records over 30 network outages, Nigeria

• In May 2025, Nigerian telecommunication companies faced implicit 30 web failures, causing wide disruption to dependable calls, information connectivity, and SMS services, frustrating millions of users
• While the nonstop causes stay unclear, particularly to customers, experts suggest infrastructure damage, fibre optic outages, powerfulness proviso issues, and vandalism arsenic apt factors
• Telecom operators and the NCC are moving connected improving web resilience, with telecom executives calling for a Fibre Protection Framework to safeguard infrastructure and trim work interruptions

Legit.ng writer Zainab Iwayemi has 5-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.

Nigerian telecommunication companies endured a hard May, jointly registering much than 30 web failures crossed aggregate work points, starring to important choler among users who are present seeking improved prime of service.

Millions of customers nationwide were impacted by the disruptions. Photo Credit: Contributor
Source: Getty Images

The regular outages hampered dependable calls, information connectivity, and adjacent SMS services, substantially limiting idiosyncratic and firm communications passim the month.

Millions of customers nationwide were impacted by the disruptions, which ranged successful magnitude from a fewer minutes to galore hours. Social media sites and lawsuit enactment hotlines were inundated with complaints from irate users astir missed calls, unsuccessful online purchases, and extended periods without net connection.

For galore people, particularly those who trust connected dependable net for distant work, e-commerce, oregon digital banking, these disruptions instantly resulted successful mislaid productivity and fiscal consequences.

Although the telecoms person not afloat revealed the reasons down each outage, industry observers suggest a fig of variables.

These astir apt see harm to infrastructure, fibre optic cablegram outages caused by existent development, basal presumption power proviso instability, and imaginable web capableness oregon method challenges. The sheer measurement of occurrences raises concerns regarding the robustness and upkeep of the existent telecommunications infrastructure successful a azygous month.

“The frequence of these disruptions successful May is peculiarly alarming,” stated Afolabi Yewande, a telecommunications user based successful Lagos. “It points to systemic vulnerabilities that request urgent attention. Businesses, particularly those reliant connected integer transactions and unreality services, are taking important hits, and mean citizens are progressively inconvenienced.”

According to reports, the manufacture watchdog, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), is interacting with web providers to find the afloat scope of the harm and to unit them to instrumentality stronger precautions. According to NCC sources, a thorough valuation of web resilience tactics is successful progress, with an accent connected enhancing infrastructure information and ensuring capable backup powerfulness options.

Due chiefly to fibre outages and powerfulness problems successful places similar Lagos, Rivers, Ogun, and the Federal Capital Territory, Globacom, the third-largest operator, recorded the astir incidents successful May—13. Eleven occurrences were reported by 9mobile, mostly related to method issues and powerfulness outages.

The biggest operators, MTN and Airtel, reported 5 and 4 incidents, respectively. MTN’s disruptions were traced to fibre harm successful Benue, Imo, and Akwa Ibom states, portion Airtel cited work interruptions successful Bayelsa and Abia owed to vandalism and power-related failures.

Causes of mediocre networks

Although they admit the difficulties, web operators often item the challenging operating environment, which includes the precocious outgo of diesel for generators, the wide vandalism of infrastructure, and the sluggish support process for right-of-way fibre development.

They spot a beardown accent connected continued investments successful web resilience and growth, specified arsenic the installation of backup powerfulness sources and heightened information for captious infrastructure.

Tobechukwu Okigbo, the Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer for MTN Nigeria, informed stakeholders who precocious convened successful Lagos to analyse the 22-year-old communications enactment that operators incur important losses for each lawsuit of web outage.

He clarified that, successful summation to disrupting services, outages caused by fibre cuts, powerfulness outages, and infrastructure vandalism besides spot a important fiscal strain connected operators.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the "Designation and Protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure Order, 2024" enforcement bid connected June 24, 2024, successful an effort to amended infrastructure protection.

Outages caused by fibre cuts, powerfulness outages, and infrastructure vandalism besides spot a important fiscal strain connected operators. Photo Credit: Contributor
Source: Getty Images

According to the ruling, immoderate Nigerian networks, infrastructure, and accusation and communications exertion systems are legally considered important nationalist assets.

Telecom executives are advocating for a Fibre Protection Framework to grip the ongoing crisis. This model would centralise regulation, let for real-time monitoring, and enforce terrible penalties connected individuals who origin harm to fibre infrastructure.

Operators explicate reasons for accelerated depletion of information

Legit.ng reported that Telecom customers are requesting a probe into what they notation to arsenic inexplicable information consumption done emails and nonstop messages sent to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Operators support that determination is nary mode to chopped down connected customers' information usage, claiming that idiosyncratic behavior—specifically, the modulation from 3G and 4G to 5G and the emergence successful video streaming habits—is to blasted for the rising consumption.

The quality arose aft the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy was encouraged by the Nigerian Senate to enactment with operators to measure information and internet-related work costs.

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Source: Legit.ng