Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Minister Yamfwa Mukanga has urged Airtel Zambia to consider reducing the cost of making calls on their network so that Zambians can utilise their phones for business purposes and not for mere luxury.
Mr. Mukanga said Airtel should strive to reach a level where all Zambians are able to make business calls on this network thereby using the phones as necessities to improve their living standards.
He said government would want the mobile service provider to invest more in technology so that calls can be cheaper for Zambians.
He noted that government has reduced the cost of doing business in Zambia and therefore expects service providers to do the same so that the benefits can trickle down to the common Zambians who use phones every day.
The Minister was speaking shortly after he toured Airtel head office to familiarise himself with the operations of the giant telecommunication service provider.
Mr. Mukanga stated that government will welcome all investors who will do businesses that are aimed at benefiting Zambians and urged the company to improve the conditions of service for its employees.
And Airtel Managing Director Fayaz King emphasised the importance of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) advancement his company has made to improve the quality of service delivery to its clients.
Mr. Fayaz said ICT in mobile communication have significantly transformed the lives of people adding that his company believes in improvement of every person’s quality of life.
He noted that there was a positive correlation between investment in ICTs and economic growth saying his company will continue investing in ICT and work closely with government to improve people’s lives.
Airtel recently undertook a 3.75G network roll out, an investment which is expected to contribute to the country’s economic growth by increasing efficiency, productivity and reduce the cost of doing business.
ZANIS
UNFORTUNATELY, IT APPEARS LIKE ZAMBIA IS DOING AWAY WITH LANDPHONES. MAY I KNOW IF THERE ARE LANDLINES IN DOMESTIC HOMES IN ZAMBIA.
Why unfortunately? If mobile can provide the same functionality and maybe even more convenience why should Zambia, and indeed other developing countries invest in landline infrastructure. Mobile communication is one of those leapfrogging technologies that enable accelerated sustainable development for developing countries by skipping inferior, less efficient, more expensive or more polluting technologies and industries and move directly to more advanced ones. It is proposed that through leapfrogging developing countries can avoid environmentally harmful stages of development and do not need to follow the polluting development trajectory of industrialized countries. Another example is in the use of solor power
This is a tricky one, imagine trying to support a school, or hospital or company on mobile technology. Zamtel should come up with a product that combines everylandline with ADSL/Cable TV, imagine being able to browse the net on your TV, send emails, take and make calls all in one package!! they already have the infrastracture they just need to improve on it.
#1, Where have you been? WHy do we need landlines when most of the houses in Zambia are rented and thus not permanent. Can you imagine how many times you have to change the Yellowpages if you had a landline. Leave that to business houses that do not move easily.
Come back home and see the story for yourself son!
3.75G kwisa? they dont even have the latest iteration of 3G deployed and they claim 3.75G? dream on LT. There is currently no HSPA+ deployment in Zambia to begin with!!!! no MIMO or 64 QAM features!!!
walasa chibusa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Organized Chaos that is Zambia
four sake chi color wabe tall lay
The answer is to introduce competition with Zambians as shareholders.
No. 4 Nubian Princess – you have hit the nail on the head. It takes a very big heart to live there …
mwanya ba mwankole. ive been where u are. dont kuntumpa
#2 Landphones are still there in Zambia, i call my family on the landphone all the time and trust me its cheaper than calling on a cellphone. Only those that do not have landphones would claim that they arent there
Its a free market economy. If you want them to reduce the cost of their services, provide cheaper services at Zamtel and also introduce another service provider in Zambia and we shall have some competition.Â
Why have phones at all?
When you call the police they don’t arrive.
Call the fire brigade and they have no water.
Ask for an ambulance and you get told to find a wheelbarrow.
@GPS do police stations even have phones???????????
#3 Peter Mumba,
Next time you post a blog, post it english!
Whats the emergency number pa zed? 999?
internet connectivity is generally slow in zambia. grz should first work on ensuring fast internet by abandoning the ancient satellite we are connected to.
I thought they were connected to the SAT3 undersea cable?? and were working on getting connected to SEACOM as well, does Mwembeshi really work? they can deploy fibre optic in stages it is not attractive to copper theives but works at the speed of light. i wonder if Zamtel ha a director of product development….. ooooohhh i forgot its a government parastatal
Zambia may be the only country in the world which has allowed so called investors to exploit its citizenry. zambians have continued being exploited and robbed of their wealth.
The only solution to all this nonsense is to just allow another mobile service provider namely vodacom who for years have been trying to get a share of the zambian market. Trust me if another mobile provider is allowed both these clowns mtn and airtel will be on there feet trying to improve, rite now there in no hurry to improve cause zambians will settle for what is being provided.
Why don’t you reduce the same from your OWN ZAMTEL , the rest will fall in place. Airtel is private .
Bwana minister, you should start with government fiscal policy first. The kwacha is now K5300 and still falling. Telecoms equipment is imported using $$$. What do you expect???
its’ sad that the most critical people on ths blog are Zambian’s living abroad, don’t just crticize us back home for being backwards, offer solutions… President Sata once mentioned that India today is the 4th Largest economy because of it’s people coming back to invest at home.. Think about how much the billions of dollars you have made combined can contribute greatly to developing this nation. Just a thought.
This is a joke, Vodafone has been begging to join the market but were blocked by the MMD government so why not bring them on board and the cost of calls will surely go down. Someone was getting a kick back from MTN and ZAIN so they blocked Vodafone
Airtel should really reduce their charges if not call vodacom to come in then will see how the competition will be. Look at how they have mistreated the minority shareholders they cant even pay them to day useless investor who is just after stealing from people. Indians again
The more the competition the more investors will wake up by involving other companies hence they will offer the customers quality services
Let the PF ask Zamtel to reduce their own rates so that they can get all the customers in Zambia. Â We can’t force Airtel, those fecking Injuns, to reduce their rates but our very own Zamtel can reduce rates and provide better service to Zambians. Â The Minister is barking up a wrong tree.
Isn’t Zambia a free market economy. Only competition and market forces should determine prices. Zamtel anyone?
airtel is so fake..i no longer top up..but i wonder why some people still top up on it,..got o MTN
You have your zamtel back . Reduce the cost so that all zambian become patriotic to their zamtel by subscribing at lower rates.They wanted it.
your COI report claims zamtel is equiped to handle such.
Whatever happened to free market economy? Please let the market dictate the pricing and not the Government. If this kind of government involvement in business continues, Zambia will continue to be a third world country for many years to come because no smart investor will invest their money in such a government regulated business environment.
Airtel Digital tv is engaging in massive fraud. I smsed BUY to 54325 to get details of the connection. One executive called and after discussion paid Rs 999 for the connection. She gave me a transaction ID and said customer ID will be smsed in a couple hours. I never received it nor any serial code or activation code. Connection has not been given and it is now close to 2 weeks. Their customer service is so bad…they say they will take complaint but put you on hold and cut the call. Complaints are closed without taking action. When I call they ask for customer ID and I tell them I never received it. After 15 such calls I have thoroughly given up. They have absolutely no record of me paying the money but my credit card has been charged for the amount.