Abuja - Nigeria's telecommunications authorities on Thursday
threatened to impose sanctions on an affiliate of giant mobile
phone service provider MTN Group [JSE:MTN] over alleged poor service to
subscribers.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) issued the
warning to MTN Nigeria Communication in a statement.
Subscribers in Nigeria's economic capital Lagos and its
environs have in recent days experienced difficulties using their phones on the
MTN network.
But the NCC said that MTN had neither informed its
subscribers nor communicated the development to the state-run regulator, as
required.
NCC ordered the telecoms firm to provide it with a report on
the situation within 24 hours, including details of what was being done
"to urgently address the problem".
Failing to respond might result in sanctions, the agency
added, without elaborating.
Officials of MTN were unavailable for comment.
MTN Nigeria has the largest subscriber base in what is Africa's most populous nation, with more than 90 million customers there.