Malawi's telecom services have been fully restored after being disrupted by heavy and excessive rainfall.
Mobile operators have achieved this in partnership with the government.
Services had been disrupted in the Central and Southern regions due to harsh weather in December and early January, which destroyed critical national infrastructure
Optical fibre infrastructure was damaged, bridges were swept away, and electrical supplies halted, creating outages at multiple base transceiver station sites serving the regions.
The disruptions triggered the activation of the Emergency Telecommunications Operations Centre (ETOC), which serves as the national coordination hub for disaster response to ensure continuity of telecom services.
ETOC brings together the telecom operators, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi, Department of Disaster Management Affairs and other key stakeholders.
They monitor network performance, coordinate restoration efforts, prioritise critical infrastructure and minimise service disruptions during disasters.
Mayamiko Nkoloma, acting director general of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority, commended network operators for restoring services under difficult conditions.
“I applaud the dedication and professionalism of our engineers, who worked around the clock in a highly challenging and risky environment to ensure continuity of telecommunication services,” Nkoloma said.
He added, “Beyond emergencies, our engineers continue to sacrifice a lot to get to hard-to-reach network infrastructure for maintenance or refuelling of generators.”
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