By Daily Revelation Editor
The Zambia Information and Communications Authority (ZICTA) has directed Airtel Zambia PLC to come up with an action plan aimed at resolving the recurring network outages.
In a statement, ZICTA Manager Corporate Communications Hanford Chaaba stated that Airtel has been fined for failing to adhere to section 67 (1) (a) of the Information and Communications Technologies Act No. 15 of 2009 as well as the quality of Service parameters as outlined in the quality of service guidelines.
He stated that the decision to fine Airtel was made as a result of outages experienced on their network.
“This has been necessitated by recent outages experienced on the Airtel network that affected its subscriber bases,” Chaaba said.
He stated that ZICTA authority would continue to monitor Airtel’s performance to ensure adherence to the Authority’s decision and the laws governing the sector.
ZICTA mandated it under section 6 (f) of the Information and Communications Technologies Act, No.15 of the 2009 to promote the interests of the consumers of electronic communications services as well as ensuring that operators provide quality services to the public.
This is a welcome move from ZICTA given the recurring problems consumers have been experiencing with on the Airtel network and to a smaller degree other networks on the market. It is also worth noting that ZICTA has committed towards monitoring Airtel’s performance to ensure adherence to the Authority’s decision. But the statement omitted one key aspect in that it failed to state the exact form of this fine. How much is this fine and to what tune? Is it something that would really force Airtel to make serious adjustments in its operations or it’s the usual five minute airtime or K5 rewards to customers?
Because if the nature of the fine is not punitive enough to make the erring company change course, we shall be back again another day reading the same statement from ZICTA.
It goes without saying that consumers are being affected greatly owing to the recurring outages especially on the Airtel network and this problem has been ongoing for a long time. But the penalties have been the usual scratch the back type which have literally had no impact on the network to seriously change course at all.
Meanwhile, the consumers as always continue to bear the brunt of such poor services. Some have missed out on job opportunities, some on important assignment work or school deadlines. For others the problem has even led to very life threatening events where a loved one who might have been calling for help to get to a hospital but hopelessly lost out because there was no existent network to call someone in for help.
We are of the view that recurring mistakes should not continue being treated with kid gloves. How about temporarily suspending a licence of a network that continues to exhibit inertia in terms of changing course or even permanently revoking their licences in case they don’t change course for the better.
Ultimately, this sector must also be encouraged to bring on board more players onto the market. There should actually be no cartels encouraged to stifle others from coming onto the market. With more competition also comes improvements in performance as those already existing will simply be left by customers to hang in the cold as they move to other more worthy platforms.
Therefore this step that ZICTA has taken should herald the start of more serious measures to come should the network providers continue on the same path of mediocrity.
Related
By Daily Revelation Editor
The Zambia Information and Communications Authority (ZICTA) has directed Airtel Zambia PLC to come up with an action plan aimed at resolving the recurring network outages.
In a statement, ZICTA Manager Corporate Communications Hanford Chaaba stated that Airtel has been fined for failing to adhere to section 67 (1) (a) of the Information and Communications Technologies Act No. 15 of 2009 as well as the quality of Service parameters as outlined in the quality of service guidelines.
He stated that the decision to fine Airtel was made as a result of outages experienced on their network.
“This has been necessitated by recent outages experienced on the Airtel network that affected its subscriber bases,” Chaaba said.
He stated that ZICTA authority would continue to monitor Airtel’s performance to ensure adherence to the Authority’s decision and the laws governing the sector.
ZICTA mandated it under section 6 (f) of the Information and Communications Technologies Act, No.15 of the 2009 to promote the interests of the consumers of electronic communications services as well as ensuring that operators provide quality services to the public.
This is a welcome move from ZICTA given the recurring problems consumers have been experiencing with on the Airtel network and to a smaller degree other networks on the market. It is also worth noting that ZICTA has committed towards monitoring Airtel’s performance to ensure adherence to the Authority’s decision. But the statement omitted one key aspect in that it failed to state the exact form of this fine. How much is this fine and to what tune? Is it something that would really force Airtel to make serious adjustments in its operations or it’s the usual five minute airtime or K5 rewards to customers?
Because if the nature of the fine is not punitive enough to make the erring company change course, we shall be back again another day reading the same statement from ZICTA.
It goes without saying that consumers are being affected greatly owing to the recurring outages especially on the Airtel network and this problem has been ongoing for a long time. But the penalties have been the usual scratch the back type which have literally had no impact on the network to seriously change course at all.
Meanwhile, the consumers as always continue to bear the brunt of such poor services. Some have missed out on job opportunities, some on important assignment work or school deadlines. For others the problem has even led to very life threatening events where a loved one who might have been calling for help to get to a hospital but hopelessly lost out because there was no existent network to call someone in for help.
We are of the view that recurring mistakes should not continue being treated with kid gloves. How about temporarily suspending a licence of a network that continues to exhibit inertia in terms of changing course or even permanently revoking their licences in case they don’t change course for the better.
Ultimately, this sector must also be encouraged to bring on board more players onto the market. There should actually be no cartels encouraged to stifle others from coming onto the market. With more competition also comes improvements in performance as those already existing will simply be left by customers to hang in the cold as they move to other more worthy platforms.
Therefore this step that ZICTA has taken should herald the start of more serious measures to come should the network providers continue on the same path of mediocrity.
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