Airtel Zambia Admits To Poor Service, Invests Fresh $140m

Airtel Zambia, one of the largest local telcos, says it has invested over $140 million in upgrading its network system, and also admitting that its service has been poor.

 

“Our network and data services have been a pain. Our roaming experience has had its challenges from pricing to connectivity. We have not been responsible in instances to attend to queries,” said Airtel Zambia managing director Charity Lumpa.

Lumpa added that the company has invested $80 million in the expansion of the network and an additional $62 million to manage the growth making it a total of $142 million.

In June this year Airtel Zambia was forced to refund airtime to over 28,000 subscribers in the southern African country after the intervention of the regulatory body Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA).

ZICTA had said about 28,000 Airtel customers were erroneously marked as roaming subscribers and lost airtime amounting to $180 each.

Besides Airtel Zambia there are two other mobile phone and internet companies in Zambia; MTN and Zamtel. As at 2012, mobile phone operators were reported to have penetrated an estimated 62 percent of the 13.9 million population.