from ARNOLD MULENGA in Lusaka, Zambia
Zambia Bureau
LUSAKA, (CAJ News) – AUTHORITIES have expressed concern at the recent intermittent network and service outages on the Airtel Zambia network.
The Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has since ordered the beleaguered operator to compensate all subscribers in line with the approved compensation policy within five days from this past Friday (December 8), a day after the latest outage.
The regulator has also directed the network provider to urgently put in place measures that will ensure such outages are averted, and submit to ZICTA a long-term plan to improve network resilience.
Hanford Chaaba, the Corporate Communications Manager at ZICTA, said the organisation would actively monitor network performances of all services providers to ensure that the Quality of Service (QoS) guidelines are strictly adhered to.
“We encourage members of the public to continue reporting any issues related to unavailability and quality of network or service,” Chaaba said.
Airtel Zambia, which has a market share of around 50 percent, has suffered outages for a week now.
It announced, “Affected customers will receive compensation for the disruption and inconvenience caused.”
The operator said it would notify the clients via SMS.
Subscribers have been receiving varying bundles of data and airtime as compensation.
“Airtel Networks Zambia Plc sincerely apologises for the inconvenience the outage caused and appreciates the patience and support shown by all our valued customers.”
The telco said its engineers had managed to “correct” and resolve the situation on Thursday night.
“All services are now in working order,” it stated.
– CAJ News