Citizens in Uganda are angry about the lack of service from MTN Uganda. They are angry over the failure of their calls between Uganda Telecom and MTN being connected. They believe that this is a result of MTN Uganda’s apparent shutdown of connecting mobile calls over a lawsuit that the company won, forcing UTL to pay the company a hefty fine.
“It is ridiculous,” said one man, holding his phone high in the air. “These business people think they can just use us and we won’t get angry. It is so wrong.”
He is one of thousands of Ugandans who has been unable to connect to users subscribing to the other company. And the anger is rising.
A senior Uganda Telecom official told the Daily Monitor that company executives met all day Friday in an attempt to rectify the matter.
“We are speaking to MTN. All we can say for now is there is a technical issue on the MTN side,” the official was quoted as saying.
Officials at the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC), the country’s telecoms regulator, were unaware of the developments. If this stalemate continues, over 2 million UTL mobile phone subscribers will be affected.
MTN had threatened to sever its connection with UTL in early January, but the government stepped in and prevailed, local reports indicate.
MTN Uganda had sued UTL over unpaid interconnection fees dating back over two years.
By Andrew Matapare
This is ridiculous, there should be a solution! as far as users are concerned the technical and billing issue dont have to be know by them and clearly its affecting the reputation and trust.
negotiations should not only be underway but emerge successful ASAP to avoid frustrating all users and striking back at their businesses…….hope for better!