In Guinea, the voice, data and mobile money services of the telecommunications operator MTN Guinea have been unavailable since the morning of Friday April 26. In a press release published the same day, the Guinean subsidiary of the South African company MTN Group announced to its customers that “  actions are underway for a rapid recovery  ”.

This interruption of services affects MTN Guinea’s 3.4 million subscribers, according to the latest data available from the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ARPT). The company has a market share of 24.2%, compared to 69.5% and 6.3% for its competitors Orange and Cellcom, respectively.

The unavailability of services comes as MTN Group announced its exit from Guinea and the sale of its local subsidiary to Telecel Group. The situation worries workers’ unions who are calling on the State for help in order to save and preserve the direct and indirect jobs of more than 500 Guineans.

“If nothing is done, the company risks going out of business. Following the blackout that our company is facing, which only worsens the financial situation of our company, we are led to call on the State to request its intervention in order to avoid the same fate suffered by SOTELGUI and Intercel in the past,” declared the MTN Guinea union delegation in an intervention on April 27.

In a statement released on April 29, the ARPT said it was closely monitoring the resolution of this “  critical situation  .” The regulator reassured consumers that appropriate measures are being implemented to get MTN Guinea to ensure network availability and continuity of services in accordance with the obligations contained in its specifications.

Source: Agency EcoFin