Cell C has denied it was to blame for the problems experienced by the Vodacom network on Friday.
”Problems experienced were on Vodacom’s network and our understanding is that these were rectified by Vodacom’s engineers fixing their own network problems,” said Cell C head of communications Vanashree Pillay on Monday.
On Friday afternoon Vodacom subscribers found themselves unable to make or receive phone calls.
In the late afternoon, when the network was up and running again, Vodacom issued a statement blaming Cell C for the problems.
”After extensive investigation Vodacom has identified that incoming data received on interconnecting links for the Cell C network appears to have disrupted the Vodacom network and Vodacom has therefore terminated all links from Cell C to the Vodacom Network with immediate effect until this problem can be resolved,” said Pieter Uys, Vodacom’s chief operations officer said.
But Pillay said the problem had nothing to do with Cell C.
”As a result of Vodacom’s network failure, Cell C is assessing the impact of the interruption in roaming services as well as the regrettable statements made by Vodacom in the media incorrectly blaming Cell C,” she said.
In a statement, Vodacom had apologised to subscribers who experienced difficulty in making and receiving calls for approximately one hour on Friday.
People who tried to phone from their Vodacom phones got a ”network busy” signal. Those phoning the network either got a busy tone or the message that ”the number you have dialled does not exist”.
Vodacom connected its 20-millionth subscriber in South Africa earlier in May and has a 57% market share in the country.
Outside of China, India and the United States, Vodacom South Africa is now the second-largest company by customers in the Vodafone Group, larger even than Vodafone United Kingdom. — Sapa and I-Net Bridge