Power failure at MTN Uganda data centre causes network outage

What happened

MTN Uganda said a power failure at one of its primary data centres triggered an outage on 5 July 2026. The company said the outage severely affected voice, data and mobile money services across its network, and that services were later fully restored. It apologised and said it would keep investing in network infrastructure. The report does not say what caused the power failure, or whether it was on the incoming supply or inside the data centre.

Contributing factors

Not reported. The company attributed the outage to a power failure at a primary data centre, but gave no further cause.

Lessons learned

1. A power failure at one data centre can take down voice, data and payment services together, so operators should know which services depend on each site.
2. After a data centre power loss, restoration should be checked service by service, not assumed from a single status update.
3. Public notices should say what failed and what is still unknown, including whether backup power was available.

Source

telecompaper.com