The Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has ordered Zambia's largest mobile operator, Airtel Zambia, to remove a complaints-blocking machine from its call centre, or be punished.
The automated call-blocking machine bars all numbers that call the centre more than three times in one day. It is believed the callers want to complain about the company's poor services.
In the last few months, customers have been up in arms over Airtel's persistent poor services. Instead of improving services, the telco secretly installed a complaints-blocking machine in order to bar people from registering their displeasures at the operator's poor service delivery.
But ZICTA, the country's telecoms sector regulator, has ordered Airtel to immediately remove the machine, saying the practice was an affront to consumer rights and interest as it denies them the right to complain.
“The practice deprives consumers of the privilege to contact their service provider when necessary,” says ZICTA acting public relations manager Chisha Simungala.
Simungala warned that the Authority would not hesitate to punish Airtel Zambia, should the company refuse to abide by the order.
In December last year, Airtel announced that its network was set to improve, following a planned $1.5 billion investment.
The announcement of the planned investment followed numerous complaints regarding Airtel Zambia's alleged poor network and services, which prompted subscribers to boycott the network every Wednesday in a bid to press the company's management to improve services.
Airtel Zambia has rapidly been growing its subscriber base, which now totals 4.2 million, but without corresponding investment in infrastructure development. This has resulted in a congested network and poor services.
Airtel decided to install the call-blocking machine in a bid to stem the overwhelming customer complaints against its poor services.
SA's MTN subsidiary, MTN Zambia, is said to be the best network in Zambia, providing quality and affordable services on a congestion-free network.
Over the past two years, Airtel has only concentrated on adding more subscribers to its network as competition with MTN, which has been steadily expanding, stiffens.
Airtel Zambia has partnered with ZICTA to build sharable towers under the Universal Access Project, which will see the construction of 350 towers across Zambia. About 131 towers have already been constructed and commissioned under the initiative, aimed at expanding communication across the country, especially to rural areas.
Share