USSD Channels Blocked As Banks, Telcos Tangle

USSD Channels Blocked As Banks, Telcos Tangle

The crisis between telecoms operators and the commercial banks over the use of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platforms deepened yesterday as customers couldn’t carry out major transactions on the platform.

It was gathered that some commercial banks cut off their USSD, airtime purchase and other online services from telcos, especially MTN network, over both parties inability to agree on the amount to be charged.

Consequently, MTN in a text message sent to its over 75 million users yesterday said its USSD platform was not available.The text read: “Dear Customer, our bank recharge channels are currently unavailable. Kindly recharge using physical cards. We apologise for the inconvenience. Thank you.”