Technical issues with the 204 Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) network has affected mobile communication services in Zambia.

The break in services is said to have been caused by a fault on an orbiting satellite AMOS-5, owned by Spacecom, an international communications provider servicing Central and Southern Africa.

Other countries said to have been affected include Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Zambia's minister of Communications and Transport Kapembwa Simbao was yesterday forced to make a ministerial statement in Parliament and said the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA), the country's telecom sector regulator, has since engaged Spacecom to see how fast communication services could be restored.

According to Simbao Spacecom has told the Zambian government, through ZICTA, that an unprecedented major fault on the orbit satellite AMOS-5 has occurred and that the company has indicated that it does not have further information regarding the cause.

The network to all 204 GSM sites in Zambia and other countries in the region are currently down with no immediate resolution until the problems are resolved and the link re-established, Simbao added.

"We have asked Spacecom to migrate the traffic for the 204 GSM sites to an alternative satellite, which operated in the same frequency band as the Amos-5 in order to bring back the network," he said.

Authorities are reportedly still waiting to hear from ZICTA on progress in solving the problems.