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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (20984)	4/20/2007 11:10:03 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 46821

MTN Explains Network Disruption By Elias Biryabarema \| The Monitor Kampala, Uganda \| April 19, 2007 [FAC: Here's another case where an "upgrade" has led to disruptions. Some may not recall, but the SS7 system here in the states underwent similar disruptions, nationwide, during the late 80s, early nineties... followed by similar frame relay disruptions upon their being upgraded, as well. I don't know which is more perilous to the health of an organization's IT. Whether it's a software upgrade to a working network, or testing the main data center's backup generators. Power tests sometimes lead to double trouble, as when the generators don't engage properly followed by their switchgear failing to re-engage the utility.] allafrica.com MTN subscribers are to continue experiencing intermittent service disruptions for the next three weeks before stability is restored, a senior company official has said. Mr Eric Van Veen, the MTN Chief Commercial Officer told Daily Monitor in an interview on April 17, that the company's on-going engineering works on the network was severely compromising the service quality, causing the frequent breakdown in some of the mobile services. Over the last weeks there has been widespread grumbling by MTN customers over the network's failure to load airtime on cell phones, deliver account balance reports and the constant dropping of calls. The worst affected has been the Short Message Service or SMS, so popular among the younger section of the population. In the peak times-usually in the evenings and on holidays-it has been difficult to send messages: some are never delivered, while others delay for hours. "We try our level best to minimise inconvenience to our customers although it's at times impossible to avoid it," he said. "We believe though that after this brief period, our customers will have the best experience." The upgrade was prompted by an unexpected and sudden surge in the company's mobile subscriber numbers thus overwhelming its network's traffic transmission capacity. With 1.6 million subscribers, MTN nearly controls two thirds of the country's telecoms market. Last year alone, it achieved a growth of 65 per cent, adding about 700,000 customers to its subscriber base, according to Mr Van Veen. This sharp growth subsequently engendered frequent logjams in its network, a situation that worsened during the end of year festive season where customers were totally unable to make or receive calls. ------