Election: NCC Clears Air On Shutting Down Networks

The Nigerian Communications Commission has stated that there will be no telecommunication shutdown for the elections.

It stated that all network operations would run as usual. It said this in response to information circulating about a planned network shutdown for the elections.

The NCC said, “The attention of the Nigerian Communications Commission has been drawn to fraudulent and misleading information circulating in some social media platforms, insinuating there is a planned shutdown of all telecom networks and relevant ICT units, including online transfer facilities of the banks, with effect from today, February 23, 2023.

“The Nigerian public, consumers of telecommunications services, and all bank customers are advised to ignore these or similar messages that insinuate deliberate network shutdown or disruption of services in the Nigerian telecom network.”

According to the commission, it has received assurance from all service providers and there will be no deliberate shutdown or disruption on election day.

It added, “Therefore, all users of telecommunications and banking services utilising network facilities are assured of continued optimal service delivery before, during, and after the general elections in Nigeria.”

MTN Nigeria recently informed its customers of a network freeze scheduled to happen during the presidential and governorship elections.

The first phase of the network freeze will start on the 24th of February 2023 and end on March 1, 2023, while the second phase will start on March 10 and end on March 15.

Explaining its action in a tweet, the firm said, “About the network freeze. We do not implement changes on our network during critical times to minimise the chance of an outage.

“Keeping the network as it is, is a common practice in telecoms referred to as a Network Freeze.”

A network freeze is not a network shutdown and only involves the suspension of any core maintenance or updates that would cause a network outage. During a network freeze, only emergency changes will be allowed on the network during this period.

NAN