Services offered by Zambia's three mobile phone companies are still below par, according to the country's telecoms sector regulator.
The Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority's (ZICTA's) consumer affairs manager, Katwamba Mwansa, said Zambia's ICT sector was still performing below the expected standards, compared to other countries in the region.
MTN SA subsidiary, MTN Zambia, Bharti Airtel and Zamtel are the three mobile phone service providers that currently operate in the country.
Mwansa said the operators were providing services at between 60% and 70%, which was far from satisfactory.
He said the percentage is not good enough, considering how long ago mobile services were introduced in Zambia. Mobile operators are supposed to be operating at 90%, according to Mwansa. Mobile services were introduced in Zambia almost 15 years ago.
Over the past few months, ZICTA has been receiving complaints from customers about poor service from the three operators. In response, ZICTA carried out sensitisation programmes in most parts of the country about consumer rights and the obligations of service providers, in order to stop operators from exploiting them.
“The most received complaints included poor network reception, limited network coverage, lack of fixed-lines, the sending of unnecessary messages by the service providers, and unexplained overcharging of airtime,” Mwansa said.
Consumers, especially in rural areas, now want ZICTA to introduce or improve network connectivity and access to other ICT services including Internet connectivity.
But Mwansa said ZICTA still had the challenge of taking ICT services and facilities to all parts of the country.
Poor service provision by mobile operators in Zambia is generally considered to be a result of a lack of investment in network upgrades, and has become a source of concern for customers who are losing money on uncompleted calls.
Through the Zambian government, Mwansa said, a tower project is already under way, the aim of which is to set up about 300 communication towers in all parts of the country to ease communication problems.
The tower project is expected to be completed before year-end. About 88 towers have already been erected in different parts of the country. The towers will be shared by the three operators, and ZICTA will, in turn, collect revenue from them for using the towers.
The move by the government to build telecoms towers is aimed at compelling service providers to quickly expand their services to remote rural areas.
Telecoms companies have been slow in expanding their services to remote rural areas, claiming low return on investment.
Airtel Zambia, however, claims it has, in the last three months, built over 88 new telecoms towers in remote rural parts of the country's western province.
Last month, MTN was named by ZICTA as the cheapest and most efficient mobile network in Zambia, and the company is promising it will invest an additional $40 million in network upgrades and expansion this year alone, to raise market share to 37%.
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