A new war is brewing between local telecommunications firms, MTN and Africell Uganda after the former switched off connection with their rival.
The incident happened on Tuesday an social media was awash with rants as desperate customers tried to question why they couldn’t connect from Africell to MTN numbers but MTN didn’t have a clear explanation. They only kept asking customers to contact Africell.
In their new ‘Don’t Be Cheated Campaign’, Africell appears to thrust a jab at competitors MTN and Airtel.
A source at Africell confirmed the mishap and said MTN Uganda breached fair play rules by it switched off their rivals connection for reasons we are yet to fully ascertain.
It was a period stretching from Tuesday morning to s0me time into the evening hours, our Africell customers couldn’t make calls to MTN numbers, leading to communication breakdown for a good number of Ugandans,” the source said adding, “Uganda Communications Commission will definitely take up the matter because the customer gets to be the victim, which is not good.”
While Africell insisted their customers were a distressed by MTN actions, the South African-owned telecom responded asking the customer to contact Africell since the issue was on their side.
UCC’s head of public and international relations, Ms Pamela Ankunda, said the regulator would make a statement about the matter after talking to both telecoms.
In a similar case of foul play, MTN Nigeria was last year fined 5 Billion USDs by Nigeria’s telecom regulator over breach of telecom rules of play like these.
