Airtel suffers a major network outage in Kenya

Wednesday 16 0ctober 2019, a section of telco customers in Kenya would wake up to the news of a major network outage, affecting calls and SMS services.

The Telco, considered second largest in the country after safaricom, would later in a tweet confirm the outage, apologizing to the clients for the hitch.

“We are currently having some technical challenges with our network. Due to this, calls and SMSs will be intermittent. However, data services are available,” Airtel posted on their official Twitter account.

Subscribers however took to social media where they vested their frustrations  complaining to have been unable to place direct calls and send messages since Tuesday night, some even complaining of not having been able to access data services.

In its official statement, the company however said that contrary to the reports from a section of subscribers indicating they could not access data services, only voice and message services were affected.

“We are working to resolve this in priority and we shall keep you update. We apologize for any inconvenience caused,” read the statement.

Industry data from the regulator shows that the telecoms operator controls 33.3 percent of the voice market, translating to a significant number of Kenyans being affected by the outage.