Zambia cracks whip on Airtel over network outages
The Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has ordered the wounded Airtel to compensate all users in accordance with the approved compensation procedure within five days over the latest outage, which occurred on Friday (December 8).
The regulator has also asked the network provider to implement immediate measures to prevent such disruptions and to present to ZICTA a long-term plan to strengthen network resilience.
ZICTA's Corporate Communications Manager, Hanford Chaaba, stated that the regulator would actively monitor network performance of all service providers to guarantee that Quality of Service (QoS) rules are properly followed.
"We encourage members of the public to continue reporting any issues related to unavailability and quality of network or service," Chaaba said in a press release.
Airtel Zambia, which has a market share of roughly 50%, has been experiencing outages for over a week.
According to the company, "Affected customers will receive compensation for the disruption and inconvenience caused."
The operator stated that it would notify customers via SMS.
As compensation, subscribers will receive varied amounts of data and airtime.
"Airtel Networks Zambia sincerely apologises for the inconvenience the outage caused and appreciates the patience and support shown by all our valued customers."
On Thursday night, the telco stated its engineers were able to "correct" and remedy the situation.
"All services are now in working order," it said.