Leading Global System of Mobile communications provider in the country, MTN Nigeria, on Monday disengaged 252 of its engineers who were responsible for the operation and maintenance of its base stations nationwide. Most of the disengaged engineers joined the company at inception in 2001 and were involved in the day-to-day running of MTN’s 10,000 base stations all over the country. The company had earlier in March explained that it and other operators were facing the challenge of not only stagnating revenues, but also increasing operating expenses. According to MTN, the network expenses of the operators are increasing due to the overall high inflationary environment along with their network expansion activities, illegal and multiple taxation, high cost of providing power and rising inflation, among others. It said, “Over 200 per cent reduction in headline price points to massive free-fall in tariffs within three years through aggressive price war. SEE MORE AFTER CUT>>>>>>>
“The aggregate spend per subscriber has reduced in the same proposition with the expected net effect from new additions not being sufficient to drive profitable growth.” As a consequence, the firms said it took a decision to focus strictly on areas that would directly impact on its operations, while outsourcing ancillary services to independent service providers.
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