Poor network services explained
POOR mobile services experienced by customers will soon end once individual mobile phone companies finish upgrading their systems, Minister of Transport and Communications Brian Mushimba has assured.
Mr Mushimba said all the three mobile phone providers namely Airtel, MTN and Zamtel were upgrading their systems resulting in the challenges being experienced by customers.
The minister assured that the problems were temporal as the companies were investing in their operations for long-term betterment of the consumers.
He explained that Government was concerned with the poor network services being provided but applauded the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) for keeping the mobile services providers in check.
“But as minister in charge of the sector, when I hear that someone has been fined, my concern is not about the fine, but rather on why the quality of services is poor that is necessitating the fine?
“This is the second time they have been fined in the last 12 months and its speaking to the fact that we have a regulator in the sector who is making sure that we are not being taken for granted as consumers,” he said.
ZICTA recently fined the three service providers Airtel Zambia, MTN Zambia and Zamtel K12.6 million for failing to meet benchmarks for service delivery.
He said this showed that ZICTA’s tools for monitoring services were effective as evidenced by the authority’s ability to raise a red flag whenever service provision fell below the expected standard.
And Mr Mushimba has said there was a provision that compelled mobile service providers that were fined to compensate customers for poor quality services through talk time or bundles.
“There is a way depending on how grave the problem could have been that necessitated the fine,” he said.