On Monday, social media was agog with information that Airtel was sharing free N1,000 airtime to its subscribers.
While many of the subscribers did not know the reason for the rare gesture by the network provider, they claimed it was a cyberattack by ‘Anonymous’ hackers.
Others claimed that the free airtime was a giveaway to support the ongoing #EndSARS campaign in the country.
It was, however, found that Airtel Nigeria credited its customers’ account with N1,000 airtime and data as compensation for network disruption on Friday, October 16.
The network provider sent messages to its subscribers, informing them that the airtime and free data were compensation for service disruptions on its network on Friday.
The message stated, “Dear customer, we apologise for the recent service disruption experienced on October 16. “Normal service has been restored and your line will be credited with five minutes of on-net calls and 100MB of data both valid for one day.”
The industry regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission, had recently reiterated the industry’s compensation policy, reminding operators to sustain it.
Calls and text messages sent to the Head, Public Relations/Communications, Airtel Nigeria, Erhumu Bayagbon, were not responded to as of the time of filing this report.
A spate of hacks claimed to have been executed by an “Anomynous’ hacker had sparked rumours of bank accounts and Pay TV hacks on social media.
On Sunday when MultiChoice’s customers found that restriction had been lifted on all channels on DStv and Gotv, they attributed it to cyberattacks perpetrated by ‘Anonymous’.
However, a representative of the company said the Pay-TV company was upgrading its system and had informed its subscribers via text messages last week.
