ZAMBIA Information Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) has warned traders against flooding the local market with cheap imported counterfeit mobile phones which are hazardous to consumers.
ZICT director general Margaret Mudenda said the authority will continue stiffening regulations by ensuring information communication technologies (ICTs) gadgets such as cell phones and computers are not a health hazard.
Mrs Mudenda said Zambia should not be used as dumping ground for cheap ICT equipment which is mostly brought into the country by local traders.
She said this during a media interaction lunch for editors and journalists at Taj Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka.
“Fighting ICT counterfeits products such as fake mobile phones needs concerted efforts from other regulatory bodies. However, we will not allow cheap products to flood our local markets like the case is now,” she said.
She said traders have a tendency of buying cheap mobile phones despite knowing that same of the phones could be a source of diseases like cancer. On universal access to ICT facilities by 2015, she said the authority in the recent past initiated projects that included the promotion of the construction of over 300 shareable communication towers across the country.
Another initiative is the establishment of computer laboratories in high and basic schools as well as colleges which have been were equipped with internet facilities.
“ZICTA has also managed to enforce quality of service standards for service providers, review the licensing regime which has resulted in the reduction of licence fees in the sector,” she said.
She said once the installation of optic fibre is completed, the country will improve its internet connectivity which is critical to national development.
She said the utilisation of internet will promote electronic governance which allows people to transact and conduct business via internet.
She said accurate information is critical in social and economic hence, the role of the media plays is critical in promoting ICT products. She said the authority will work closely with the media in a quest of attaining universal access to ICT facilities by 2015.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Ati tPhone!:d Please people be content with leaving within your means rather than pretending to afford quality gadgets by buying fakes. These measures to protect consumers are welcome. BUYER BE WARE!!
We really need to put in measures to try and stop the chinese fakes from ever coming into the country, but the again implementation of such is next to impossible. In London you see the chinese fakes every where. Real Zambian @ 1, it might not be that people want to live beyond their means most don,t know better and as such are victims of scams…chinese scam that is
Most of the fakes are for people that want to keep up with the joneses. I don’t see the need for such phones because if you cannot afford the real thing why front with something obviously false? I have an old phone which is my beer phone , very reliable have dropped it 2000 times and still works like its new.
A “ZICT director general” and yet some of the statements clearly make her sound ignorant –which particular phones are a source of cancer? Mobile phone brain cancer link was rejected
bbc[DOT]co[DOT]uk/news/health-15387297
Its funny really, I mean how difficult is it to come up with a centralized blacklist database of phone IMEIs? That would make it impossible for “cheap imported counterfeit mobile phones” to be used on any Mobile Network within Zambia –ZICTA can easily facilitate such an exercise. A country of ~6Million mobile subscribers with no blacklist database –how ironic.
The 300 sharable towers is a welcome move –we obviously do not need all the three mobile operator to erect their own towers when they can share infrastructure.
I totally agree with you! Its so easy to criticise without facts..the government is to blame! They should sort out this mess of cheap counterfeit enters the country.nxa!!!!
A “ZICT director general” and yet some of the statements clearly make her sound ignorant –which particular phones are a source of cancer? Mobile phone brain cancer link was rejected.
Its funny really, I mean how difficult is it to come up with a centralized blacklist database of phone IMEIs? That would make it impossible for “cheap imported counterfeit mobile phones” to be used on any Mobile Network within Zambia –ZICTA can easily facilitate such an exercise. A country of ~6Million mobile subscribers with no blacklist database –how ironic.
The 300 sharable towers is a welcome move –we obviously do not need all the three mobile operator to erect their own towers when they can share infrastructure.
#5 You are spot on in your analysis. This director is just a lawyer from NIPA and has no clue about technology and no wonder she sounds so 1990 or old fashion. Radiation at this stage.
This is the damage RB did to our institutions. This woman is not fit to hold that position and she was just put there because of connections to RB.
Instead of talking about broadband penetration, she is busy majoring on radiation and puttng a PC in a school and calling that Internet. How behind can you surely be.
I hope the Sata mania firing squad visits her sooner rather than later. We need technocrats to be running these vital institutions. Not a Lawyer.
How hazardous is a fake phone to your health, next she will be saying generic medicines are hazardour, its a matter of personal choice, if you can afford the IPhone go for it, if you cant go for the tPhone, you’ve got to give the Chines credit they are managing to bridge the technology gap. the only thing you need to worry about is life span of you tPhone not that crap about health risks.
You see you guys Zicta whatever they are are *****s. they have started opening their dirty mouth after the lebanese who assembles phones complained that is lossing business. tobegin with he makes cheap phones than what come from Chaina (china) and they are very expensive.
Why going for expensive phones when you have cheaper Chinese phones with Radio, High Volume etc
people should not be forced buy certain goods and not the other. that company should just learn competition
BE WARE OF CHINESE PHONES LEST THOU SUFFER THUEST THY CANCER
Airtel. MTN & Zamtel are major culprit.
THEY SHOULD ALSO STOP MTN / AIRTEL TO SELL THE TUJILILI /YELLOW BERRY PHONE WHICH AFTER USING FOR SOMETIME THE KEY PAD CAN NOT BE USED BANATUGONGA MWEE AND ONE FEEL EMBARRASSED WHEN A CALL COMES AND YOU FAILL TO PICK UP BECAUSE THE BUTTON IS NOT RESPONDING
I wonder why ZICTA would tackle this matter like this. Where ZABS in the first place? ZABS are suppose to be on any point of entry in the first place.:((
ZICTA concentrate on these guys who are ripping us off. Airtel especially.
Fire this Director General she is RBs relative he said so himself and handpicked her..she si Magret Chalwe…failed to make it in a law firm partners kicked her out….
Also bwana director make visits to various communication institutions ;; zamtel’ zampost etc and see how chief execuctives run these companies…theres total exploitation of workers who have been subjected to KALOBA FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS to make ends meet.worse stil the deducted instalments are never remmitted to these institutions despite appearing on payslips.MAKE CHANGES ON THESE EXECUTIVE S ESPECIALLY ZAMPOST….PLEASE BEFORE ZICTA IS DESSOLVED BY OUR WORKING PRESIDENT SATA……
Indeed it is saddening to learn that people running vital organizations such as ZICTA are mentioning trivial matters such as “counterfeit phones” in the press. ZICTA first of all is a regulatory agency at the commercial level and not the consumer level. The director general does not appear to be a technocrat. It simply shows that most of these folks in high offices don’t really know anything. They are just bagging huge bonuses and yet the situation is not changing especially with regards to ICT. Talking about counterfeit phones in the press is simply cheap rhetoric from a person running an organization as sensitive as ZICTA. Zambia is currently decades behind in terms of ICT compared to other countries. ICT if managed well can contribute greately to a nations development.
Let me also take this opportunity to point out that currently we have no master degree programs in telecommunication engineering in Zambia.This is also quite disturbing. The thing that drives technological development is research and how can you do research without educational programs to train personnel. You can put computers in high schools all over the country,but minus higher educational programs in universities, our people will only become computer literate. What Zambia needs is to educate people up to research level in technical fields so that we can begin to invent products which we’ll be able to sell and generate capital which will advance the country. Technological advancement and innovation is and always will be one of those things that a progressive country can not do without.
The latest study by Institute of Epidemiology in Copenhagen involving more than 350,000 mobile users over 18 years found the same central nervous system cancer rates in both long term mobile users and non users. This supports reports that say using a mobile phone does not increase the risk of brain cancer. Regardless, some scientists have discredited the study – some say it is flawed while others say it is worthless and can mislead the public and decision makers.
When will this anti-Chinese product crusade grow some brains? What is so difficult to realise that there is a willing and ready market for these phones, and for the majority of Zambians, these feature rich phones at those prices are the only viable option for them. If these phones are empowering many Zambians, who is ZICTA to prevent them?
Well said #21. This anti-Chinese circus needs to come to an end. How long shall we rally behind the western idea that Chinese products are fake? Fake to what? Are we so shallow as to limit ourselves to the belief that no new players should join the cellphone manufacturing industry just to protect the dying existing giants? So if start bakery, we should not buy your bread because you are making it exactly the way ZAMLOAF make their bread? Come on people. Yes Copycat product are wrong when they try to use established brand names to enjoy another company’s market share but honestly we should welcome new manufacturers and new products. That is the way of the future. That is how products become affordable. And by the way people – China isn’t fake anymore. Its the world leader now
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