Zambia’s mobile tariff rates are too high and need to be reduced to benefit the country’s consumers, says the Zambia Consumer Association (ZACA).
ZACA has called on the country’s telecoms watchdog, the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA), to reduce the interconnect rate that mobile phone operators charge each other.
The Post Online reports that ZACA’s executive director Muyunda Ililonga has said that Zambia’s current Mobile Termination Rate (MTR) among networks is too expensive.
He explained that reducing MTR could help boost access to mobile facilities among Zambians.
Research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which used a low-user basket calculation to reflect mobile prepaid prices in 2012, revealed that Zambia ranked 32 out of 46 nations in terms of Africa’s cheapest prepaid offering from a dominant operator.
According to the OECD January 2012 list, the cheapest product from a dominant operator in Zambia was more than five times the price of a similar offering in Mauritius.
"ZICTA should reduce the MTR to lower the costs of calls to the consumers and also to enable the mobile phone companies to attract subscribers through use of low cost pricing," Ililonga said.
He added, ''We think that it is part of the way to make the market more responsive as telecommunication is very important for commerce. So, there is need to lower communication costs so that people can actually begin to participate in the economy.”
Ililonga also said that Zambia’s government should allow for the entry of a fourth mobile operator in the country.
Earlier this year, Zambia’s government announced that it has temporarily suspended a move to award a fourth mobile licence in the country until after the country makes its planned digital television switch-on in 2015.
This is not the first instance where ZICTA has been called to action with regards to that country’s high tariff rates.
At the end of 2012, Zambia had an estimated mobile penetration rate of 51%, according to BuddeComm research. Zambia’s population numbers just under 14 million, say World Bank figures.
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