Widespread network disruptions have been experienced in Zambia this week following the collapse of Airtel and Zamtel networks.
Airtel Zambia, the country’s largest network, has said that it has been having network challenges but that engineers have been conducting repair works to overcome the problem.
Although the company’s network has improved in some places, there is still widespread network disruption.
Airtel head of corporate communication and government relations Chabuka Kawesha said, “We cannot roundup such complaints at a national scale but what would be more helpful is to identify specific locations which are affected so that we can establish the actual problem.”
However, the situation is worse with the Zamtel network, which cannot be accessed in almost all its coverage areas. Zamtel customers have complained about failure to recharge, inaccessible networks and long waits trying to contact customer care agents.
But the company has refused to discuss the collapsed network and what it is doing to normalise the situation.
Complaints of dropped calls, network congestions, network outage, poor customer service, lack of confidentiality and a widespread lack of network availability have been flooding through to the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) this year.
The reportedly high level of complaints even led ZICTA to drag the operators to court in July this year, alleging that the poor quality of service by the operators are ‘criminal in nature’.
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