Open Letter to MTN: Fix Visafone SMS Issue Now

MTN has today become a huge organisation in all ramifications even though their recent problem with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has certainly slowed down this giant in many ways than one.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek recently reported that Africa's biggest mobile phone operator MTN Group flagged lower first-half profit on Tuesday, blaming a hefty fine in Nigeria and sending its shares sliding nearly 4 percent.

Quite frankly, I am one of those Nigerians that have never really used an MTN line, yes I recall buying one or two of their sim cards but just felt that I am better off pitching my tent with other players. One of such players is Visafone, I remember some people asking me what in the world was I doing on a CDMA network?

First, it started as a rumour that MTN was about to take over Visafone, not necessary because it loves the rather off-the-radar Jim Ovia, who founded the CDMA company about a decade ago to compete in the then emerging market where CDMA led by Starcomms and Multilinks were giving GSM operators a run for their money.

At the end of the day, the GSM providers won the battle and the chapter of CDMA ended for good in Nigeria but only Visafone stood in their largely because of the influence of its founder.

Personally, I have used Visafone for close to a decade and I enjoyed it for real, particularly its data services. At a point, when most of the GSM companies were struggling to provide stable data services, Visafone was already doing pretty well in that regards, so, I not only had a Visafone line as my primary number on a blackberry phone that had 'unlimited' BlackBerry data subscription, I also had a visafone modem that I used for data services.

Long and short is that Visafone was a decent company that was providing good quality voice and data services. That I can attest to!

Of course, MTN made a smart choice of acquiring Visafone because, with it lies the very juicy 800 MHz spectrum that would help it enter the Long Term Evolution (LTE) space and they are very much on their way to making this happen. Report has it that, but for the fine imposed on them, they would have started some sort of testing of their LTE services which indeed may have started albeit quietly.

The very first move MTN made to 'appease' subscribers who took the pain to walk into their shops to swap their old visafone lines and register their new Sim was airtime reward.

In my case, I got 30,000 Naira airtime and a few days after that, I got another 30,000 Naira 'bonus' which made me very pleased with MTN, but little did I know that it was nothing but a greek gift. This is because it disappeared after a few days! I wonder how MTN expected me to have used up 30,000 Naira airtime within 5 days?

Be that as it may, this whole "MTN buying over Visafone" issue has brought me more personal pain than joy.

It has been a horrible experience because I have been unable to receive SMS from other networks since I moved to MTN from Visafone. All SMS coming from Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and International networks never arrive except those of MTN.

This has not just brought me pain; it has also brought me untold losses. Those who know me know that prior to the acquisition of Visafone, I did send an average of 20 to 30 text messages per day and of course received tons of responses. I believe that the open rate of SMS in Nigeria today is far higher than other mobile messaging solutions out there, which is why is remains very strategic for me.

Unfortunately, MTN has terminated that love for my visafone SMS because communication is a two-way activity. Of what use is it, sending a text message when I am dead sure the response will never arrive?

Below is a well-crafted response to one of my numerous emails that I have been sending to MTN customer service in almost 3 months:

"Sir, I will like to inform you that the issue reported is being investigated. Preliminary findings show that there is a connectivity issue affecting most Visafone lines migrated to MTN. We are currently engaging all stake holders (Other Network providers) towards achieving final resolution of this concern. I solicit your patience on this while we resolve the issue."

In as much as I want to be patient, my personal and business communication is suffering and I still cannot receive SMS from other networks. So, as far as I am concerned, it is totally unacceptable that MTN did not engage with "stakeholders" before moving us to the GSM platform. I have made an attempt to port the line and other networks say that isn't possible. So what am I supposed to do now?

I write because I am at a crossroads as to what to do. Should I let go a number that I have used for over a decade since I cannot port the number to another network? Should I make an official complain to NCC and CPC or better still, take legal action? For how long will customers suffer from the actions and inactions of service providers?

MTN fix this issue now or let me go elsewhere with my number!