Airtel Blames Construction Works for Network Outage

Airtel Nigeria has blamed on going heavy urban renewal construction works in Lagos for it network outage at the weekend. Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report that the outage which became evident on Saturday, March 10 affected its network infrastructure located in the highbrow Victoria Island neighbourhood. Emeka Oparah, vice president, csi & communications at Airtel Nigeria said in a statement release sent to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that it regretted inconvenience the incident may have caused its customers. “The outage was due to a fibre-cut at our Earth Station at Saka Tinubu, Victoria Island, Lagos, which affected one of our main switches. “We have investigated the issue and discovered that our network infrastructure was vandalized by road construction workers about 3.15pm Saturday. “While we accept full responsibility for the sad occurrence, we regret the inconveniences and hardship our valued customers must have experienced during this period,” said Oparah. By late Sunday, Oparah added that “full network services have been restored in affected areas.” Airtel is Nigeria’s third largest mobile operator by subscription with over 16 million customers.