MTN Denies Tapping Into Conversations

Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN), has denied tapping into conversations of its clients let alone divulging information from conversations on its network to political parties. Mrs Cynthia Lumor, Cooperate Services Executive (CSE) of MTN, said MTN did not even have the equipment to tap people�s conversation and emphasized that it was against the telecommunication laws to tap, obtain or whatsoever any conversations on its network. Mrs Lumor, who was reacting to questions by Journalists in the Eastern Region on speculations that during the 2008 elections, MTN tapped into political activists conversations and released them to their opponents, said it was an unfounded allegation. She observed that by law, any communication company could divulge information on its subscribers, based on court order but not conversations on their network, adding that, �because we are not permitted by law to do that we do not even have the equipment to facilitate tapping�. Explaining further, she said the law obligating them to release information of customers, based on court order was evidenced in the recent SIM card registration to ensure that the various telecommunication networks could provide information on their customers at any time required by law. According to her, MTN is a brand of an international telecommunication organization operating in many parts of the world, which understands business and has a lot of respect for the law regarding their work and would not at any point sacrifice that for any political expediency. Mrs Lumor said MTN has a subscriber base of about 11 million and its focus was to expand its network for better accessibility and clarity of calls to meet the demands of its ever growing customers and not interested in supporting any political party. She said currently the company had put in 1.2 billion US dollars to expand and improve its equipment, including provision of fiber-optic cables to expand network reception and clarity of calls for its customers. She said the current situation of call cuts and difficulty in making calls were as a result of fiber cuts that occur during road construction and other major works since the cables were laid underground. She cited as an example the construction of the Suhum-Kumasi road, which had impacted negatively on its customers due to fiber cuts.