The Zambia Consumer Association (ZACA) has challenged Zambia’s telecom sector regulator to thoroughly investigate the country’s three mobile operators for fraud.

The consumer rights body wants the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) to institute disciplinary measures against MTN, Zamtel and Airtel over the poor quality of service.

ZACA claims that the poor quality of services are not reflective of the high tariffs the operators were charging.

In addition, ZACA said the operators were also charging exorbitant fees for participating in promotion competitions that were often run to attract more subscribers.

ZACA’s complaint comes in the wake of a poor quality and congested Airtel network over the past few days that has left subscribers fuming and in some cases even failing to communicate. Airtel claims it is upgrading the network.

ZACA executive director Samuel Simutunda alleges that mobile services provision continues to be poor despite high tariffs.

“Despite the high tariffs that telecom companies are charging, poor communication services have continued and that is why ZICTA must quickly move in to probe these providers,” Simutunda said.

Last week, ZICTA said it was probing all the three operators for poor communication services and warned it would take further legal action against the operator that will be found wanting.

ZICTA has already dragged all the three operators to court over poor communication services, which the authority claims were ‘criminal in nature’.