MTN Ghana says the recent network challenges such as call drops, speech mutation, calls not going through, poor voice signals and quality among others are due to rampant fibre cuts during road constructions and other development activities. Some members of the public had suggested that since the launch of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP), the age-old network challenges had reared their heads again across all networks in the country, particularly the four GSM networks, for both voice and data services. But Senior Manager for Radio Planning and Optimisation at MTN Ghana, Reuben Opata told Adom News the network challenges had nothing to do with MNP but rather the rampant fibre cuts due to the increased number of road construction in the country in recent times. Opata said there are clear demarcations and sign posts to indicate where the telecom fibres, water pipes and electricity cables are, but road construction workers seem to ignore those demarcations and sign posts and just drive their excavators way down to the point of cutting the fibres. He said fibre cuts occur on a daily basis, and in some cases at more than one spot on a stretch of fibre connected to hundreds of cell sites serving more than one community. Reuben Opata said between 80 and 90 per cent of transmissions on MTN pass through fibre so when fibre is cut or punctured it affects services quality greatly. “When one fibre is cut calls and internet services to all the communities connected to it becomes impossible and we lose revenue, spend money for repairs or replacement, and also get all the bashing from our customers,” Mr. Opata said. Reuben Opata said as constructors continue cutting telecom fibres, it comes to a time when the fibre cannot be repaired anymore and would need to be replaced entirely, and that cost money and takes time before service is restored to customers. Adom News had earlier reported that all telecom operators were facing the challenge of fibre cuts due to road construction in the country and that was costing the industry an estimated $150,000 per month for repairs, apart from loss of revenue and the bashing that comes along with break in network service when fibre is cut. Adom News can confirm that the telecom operators have made several reports to the Ministry of Roads and Highways, which authorises the operators to lay their fibre where they lay them, and the minister is working on the issues but the fibre cuts are going on unabated. The telecom operators have recently started logging all cuts in their fibres across country and mailing copies of the log to the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Roads and Highways, The Ghana Telecoms Chamber, the National Communications Authority, and to the Parliamentary Committee on Roads and Transport as part of moves to find a lasting solution. The telecoms operators also complain of unfair treatment with regards to relocation of fibre, in that they are made to pay for relocating their fibres and cable which they paid for permits to lay, but the other utility service providers like water and electricity companies do not pay for relocation of their pipes and cables. Meanwhile, MTN took members of the Network of Communication Reporters (NCR) on a tour to its Data Centre at Sakaman, which is one of three established at a cost of about $280 million to ensure better network quality, increased capacity for more subscribers and data storage, and improved speeds for both call set up and internet services. The company displayed to journalists it had the capacity and the expertise to ensure high quality network services, but the main challenge had been the fibre cuts. The centre houses a 500 terabyte HP storage facility called XP-24,000, a high capacity Blade Cluster Switch system that in a pool system in which when a switch system serving a particular area fails, its works in automatically transferred to another system without human intervention. It also has backup systems, de-duplication and virtual storage systems, high-powered transmitters, and a combination of generators and environmentally friendly powers systems. Acting Senior Manager for Core Network Support, Godson Laryea explained told journalists with over nine million customers MTN had only consumed about 20 per cent of its capacity and is therefore able to take on more subscribers and customers. Asked why when MTN customers call numbers on other networks, sometimes they get a message saying ‘the MTN number you are calling is either switched off or out of coverage areas’ Godson Laryea said everything was automated at the MTN data centre, so when a call is being set up between an MTN number and a number on another network “our data centre completes our side of the process in micro seconds but sometimes the system does not get early response from the other network and so our system in prompted to send that message.” But some journalists commented that “this shows the system is not full-proof because if it was, there is no way it should send an obviously wrong voice prompt to a caller.” Meanwhile MTN is celebrating customer service week this week, where it is rewarding loyal customers and partners, a renewing its pledge to provide better customers service and raise the standard of customer service to customer delight.