Zambia’s rural dwellers could have to wait longer to get connected to mobile communication services as the country’s regulator has yet to award a base stations contract.

Reports have emerged that the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority has awarded a contract to South African firm Multisource Telecoms to build compact ‘Radio Access Network’ (RAN) base stations in rural areas.

But Multisource has revealed that ZICTA has not awarded any contract to the company to build the low-cost GSM network base stations to allow reception in rural parts of Zambia.

Georgina Smith of Multisource Telecoms said the company did bid for the tender, but that contrary to reports, ZICTA has not yet awarded the contract to Multisource Telecoms or any other any bidder.

“Multisource telecom has not won the bid-the ZICTA tender is still underway and no winning bid has been decided,” Smith said.

Zambia has more than 5 million people who are reportedly not subscribed to mobile communication services and most of them live in isolated rural areas, according to a study last year by Wireless Intelligent.

The decision to extend GSM services to rural areas follows calls by the Zambian government to operators to extend their mobile coverage to isolated areas in accordance with their universal service obligations.

But because of a lack of capacity with the nation’s terrestrial power grid and a heavy reliance on expensive diesel generators, the country’s three operators - including MTN Zambia and Airtel - have been slow to connect their networks to rural areas.

Multisource Telecoms has; however, applied to build compact base stations, which are both power and form factor optimised, meaning that they operate purely on green power, solar and battery only.

According to reports, the proposed base stations can be easily installed on rooftops of local businesses, community centres, churches or very low cost radio masts.