African legislators across the continent are increasingly demanding answers from mobile network operators for chronic poor service.
Parliamentarians in Cameroon, South Africa and Zambia are demanding answers on data pricing, network connectivity needs in rural regions, contributions to job creation, data security and privacy, and adherence to universal service obligations.
Zambia is the latest country to question telcos over quality of service, and National Assembly speaker Nelly Mutti has ordered minister of technology and science Felix Mutati to deliver a ministerial statement on the Airtel network's repeat outages and the steps being taken to resolve them.
Lawmakers have expressed concerns about the impact of inconsistent connectivity, particularly in rural areas where mobile communication is important for emergencies and essential services.
This come after telecoms regulator, Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) read the riot act to Airtel, after its most recent outage last week.
This was not the first time the telco had experienced service interruption, which prompted ZICTA to threaten the telco with a fine.
Meanwhile, the speaker of parliament declared that the nation has to be informed about the causes for the network provider's bad service and the steps being taken to address the issue.
Mutti said: “This matter is affecting everyone. We need to know why the services are poor and what is being done to ensure service providers comply with stipulated guidelines.”
The move by the Zambian parliament comes a few days after South African parliament also summoned mobile network operators to respond to a range of concerns that lawmakers felt impacted consumers.
The following issues were considered by parliamentarians: network connectivity standards in rural areas, contributions to job creation, transformation, and economic inclusion and empowerment for blacks in general, women, youth, and people with disabilities, data security and privacy, adherence to universal service obligations, and spectrum conditions for universal connectivity.
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