Is MTN for real?

I just returned on a five-week visit to Ghana by way of Europe. Since I was warned of the inefficiencies of mobile communication in Ghana, I decided to purchase a global phone (a Blackberry Storm) from Verizon Wireless, my service provider. After all, the Storm has a good track record as a reliable piece of communication tool. Besides, Verizon Wireless assured me of trouble free use of my phone. In spite of all these assurances, it is also always a good idea in the use of communication instruments, to have a backup. So I also purchased a quad band GSM phone, just in case.

My blackberry, in global mode, is supposed to automatically switch to the dominant mobile service provider in the country where you are. In Europe, just as my plane touched down in Amsterdam, my phone quickly switched to Vodafone NL. I used it for the duration of my stay in Holland without a hitch. My roaming charges were reasonable and my e-mail and internet browser cooperated. If this little gadget would work so well, what was the reasoning for purchasing a second phone? I found my answer after the 6 hours 45 minutes flight to Accra.

As my plane taxied from the runway at Kotoka International Airport, my Blackberry quickly latched onto MTN. I said “great”, I am in business. As I fetched my carryon bag from the overhead bin of the plane, I put a call through to the person meeting me at Kotoka Airport. Instead of hearing a human voice on the other end, what I got was a long screeching sound and then total silence. My blackberry just went into a “cardiac arrest.”

After going through customs, I had one last hope to locate my friend. At the last checkpoint (where luggage claim tags are matched with the luggage tags), I stashed a few dollars into the hands of a security guard and borrowed a phone. Without much fanfare, I placed two calls; one to my friend who was among a throng of people, who obviously were there to meet arriving passengers. The other call was to my hotel. That day was May 25, 2009.

On our way to the hotel, I requested a SIM card for my backup phone. And what did I get? An MTN SIM card! I was leery of MTN handling my mobile calls, but my friend assured me it would be OK – an assurance he regretted later. If MTN was not capable of handling my Blackberry calls, why should I trust them to handle any of my future calls to whomever, or to wherever.

Now I have a non-functioning Blackberry, thanks to MTN. My immediate remedy was to call Verizon Wireless Global Support. I did not call them to fix my communication problem on my Blackberry. I called them to freeze my account. Why should I pay for a service that is dead? That request to freeze my account made them spring to action and from May 25 to June 9, Verizon Wireless used their technological superiority to troubleshoot the problem with my Blackberry from both Houston, Texas and somewhere in Illinois. My only complaint here was the incessant phone calls and the long minutes they kept me on the phone. Eventually, I was instructed by the Verizon technician to switch my Blackberry to manual mode and after several rebooting many days down the line, the Blackberry came to life, albeit my downloads were limited with a regular MTN explanation “there is insufficient network coverage to process your request. Please try again later”. The frustrated Verizon technicians put the blame squarely on MTN because of the inadequacy of the network.

My experience with MTN continued, this time with my GSM phone. I should have removed that MTN SIM card and dumped it, but for the purposes of cataloging the shortcomings of that network, I decided to keep it.

I have not come across a mobile network that touts its huge customer base without doing much to keep them. The kind of service MTN is providing its subscribers is poor and mediocre. It should not take its customers for granted that they will continue to purchase MTN minutes although they are experiencing a lot of angst with daily mediocrity.

How can I sit across a table in a restaurant and request a friend to call my phone so as to register his number only for him to be told that “the MTN number you have dialed cannot be reached at this moment; it is either switched off or out of coverage area?” How dastardly! MTN continues to get away with its inadequacies by hiding behind these silly announcements. One of my favorites is: The MTN number you are calling is currently switched off. Please try later. For the life of me, I would have my phone ON all day long and for several poor souls to be lied to that I had switched it off. Why?

If MTN does not have the resources to provide Ghanaians with a reliable service, they need to pack up and leave room for networks that are capable of doing so. It is annoying, frustrating and dangerous (at times) to have an unreliable network. For instance, if I am stranded on a rainy night and need help getting home, tough luck! The MTN network automatically shuts down. What good is a cell phone if you cannot summon help when you are in dire straits?

Here, I’d like to propose that the Ministry of Communications, or whichever body is responsible for regulating the networks in Ghana, should step in and introduce generic mobile phone numbers that are not proprietary numbers. These numbers can be used on any of the networks, ZAIN, TIGO, VODAFONE, KASAPA, and MTN. So if you are dissatisfied with one particular network performance, you can switch to another and still carry your number with you. Ghanaian mobile subscribers need the freedom to tap into or leave any service provider for any reason whatsoever.

I trust that the allegiance to MTN has come about as a result of subscribers who have had their numbers for a considerable length of time to have to go through the agonizing process of notifying friends, loved ones and business associates of a number change. There is no need to do this with the introduction of generic numbers. THIS MUST BE DONE NOW. It certainly appears that MTN DID BITE MORE THAN IT COULD CHEW.

A.A. HARUNAH, New Jersey, USA