Plans to award a fourth mobile licence in Zambia this year have been put on hold by the country’s government.
Zambia’s minister of communications and transport, Yamfwa Mukanga, has said government has made progress in clearing the way for the fourth operator, but that the licence is only to be offered after the country’s digital migration project.
This announcement has been made despite the Zambian government having received bids from several telecom operators who have expressed interests in setting up business in Zambia.
Among the telecom firms interested is South African headquartered Vodacom, Zambian government officials have said earlier this year.
Zambia plans to migrate to digital television services by 2015, in line with a Southern African Development Community (SADC) deadline.
Zambia’s telecoms market is dominated by Airtel Zambia and MTN, which have over 8.5 million combined total number of subscribers. State-owned Zamtel also operates as a mobile network provider in the country.
“We will only allow the fourth mobile service provider on the market after the digital migration exercise is implemented. We are not in a hurry to have the fourth operator because the country is content with the current service levels,” Mukanga said.
He said the three operators that the country has presently are enough to service the market.
He added that the Zambian government is also in talks with the operators to reduce the cost of communication for the benefit of customers.
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