Tourism Minister Sylvia Masebo (right)
Transport, Works, Supply, and Communications Minister Christopher Yaluma today took to task management and staff at the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) over the authority’s alleged failure to regulate the high tariffs and poor service delivery by mobile service providers.
Mr. Yaluma charged that ZICTA has stood by and watched mobile service providers exploit Zambians through high tariffs.
He said this when he visited ZICTA offices in Lusaka today.
He said ZICTA has not performed its regulatory role even when it was aware of its responsibility of ensuring that quality services were delivered to consumers.
Mr. Yaluma alleged that the authority has instead teamed up with mobile service providers in exploiting the public.
He said as a communication regulatory authority, ZICTA should adopt an aggressive approach in regulating mobile phone service providers.
He has since instructed the authority to come up with a clear strategy of how it plans to improve access to information and communications technology, detailing the cost and benefits to Zambians.
The minister observed that ZICTA’s previous strategies lacked a clear roadmap, hence making it ineffective.
And ZICTA Board Chairperson Gertrude Akapelwa Euheni disclosed that her authority will soon open an ICT centre of knowledge which will train information technology personnel in order to improve ICT innovations in the country.
Mrs. Euheni said lack of an ICT training centre has hindered the levels of performance in the sector.
Meanwhile, ZICTA Director General Margaret Mudenda said the authority will endeavour to provide the best service to Zambians.
ZANIS
Is that Minister Masebo? Wow turned 50 looks 55 at least
No not Masebo. Masebo divorced this woman 36 years ago. Let her use her Zimbabwean name. Some Ms Murambiwa or Sithole??? why is she so scared to use her real name?
Please in zambia internet tarrifs are just abnormaly high i have moved in some countries in africa but zambia awe sure.zicta do something these guys are exploiting us for nothing
No looks like Scotty’s age more of less if you ask me! Remove the fake hair, mascara and slip of a nightie on her, you will grimace as if you have seen your mother’s sister!
PF at work!! We are here to work…jokes aside.
Infact,this has been long overdue.
Di Canio
Don’t flatter yourself! He is only ranting because he is talking to Zambians. Bring Airtel Or MTN owners and the tune will change.
In Zambia all Govt run services are inefficient and Yaluma should start with FRA (which is responsible for the stable food that feeds the country) and not mobile phone service providers. If they are that bad or expensive, ZAMTEL should be the number one option in which case Yaluma should turn to strengthen them after FRA. Let the market forces dictate the service charges and the PF run ZAMTEL should offer the alternative.
Instructions to come up with a clear strategy long overdue? D’ya think? This is why people say PF are jokers!
Now any guesses on whether they will deliver?
Iwe @It’s a worry…, have you ever heard of price fixing or collusion by dominant service providers? For example If it costs a cell phone company K1.00 (all taxes inclusive) to enable you have a 1 minute conversation and after charging you all applicable taxes and profit they operate on a 40% profit, then on average the correct price to charge you the customer is K1.40. But when all of them collude and agree on a minimum charge of K7.00 per minute, you the customer will never know that they are stealing from you through price fixing, which is basically a form of deceit, fraud and corruption, and you’ll not have any point of reference to prove their pricing wrong. So, we need a very strong regulatory framework to curb this vice. Thanks.
Wanu Ngwee
Its called a Cartel, sadly the regulators and the ministers are all in their pockets. This is why they need to bring in another network provider preferably an aggressive European carrier to shake up things although they will also be tempted to join in ripping off the consumers.
Hon Yaluma…..
In the near future, you will not remember what you have said today and push ZICTA to make sure the collect all the revenue they can from the service providers. Do you know how much ZICTA already bleeds from each service provider?
No wonder ZICTA is not perfoming,it is jst full of ladies who cant even deliver,all sorts of injustices and bad services these mobile providers r subjecting us to and they remain quiet.Shame on both the MD and the Board.
Glad to see them now waking up to that fact…..unfortunately a lot of consumers have been and are still being ripped off!!
This yaluma i have observed speaks for zambia. I think he is a good politician.in zambia thereis no consumer protection so these authorities needs to do this. Unfortunately with a zambian. It takes only a minister to say that. What is wrong kanshi
Yaluma is a level headed Minister that is contributing a lot to the development of Zambia
The question I have for the Minister and ZICTA is that when will Zambia participate in the globe ICT developmental goals such as building Silicon cities as embarked on by other african countries like Kenya and Ghana? When will the country experience cheap and fast internet speed as compared to south africa? What mechanisms has ZICTA have to make sure that Both ISPs and Cellular providers in the country provide a quality and fast internet speed? to me it looks like there’s no task force in place to make sure that ISPs provide quality internet services to the general public, and my last question is that why the internet in Zambia is unaffordable as compared to other Southern African countries when we have our own earth station?
the more good questions you ask these lot, the more confused and annoyed they become.
sad indeed.
your questions cost money….are you willing to pay increased tarrifs when the minister is already complaining? CNPs
daudi isabi you re the fool here. Read and understand what Engineer K has written. “cheap and fast internet speed”, got it? So where re you basing your increased tarrifs point? FYI questions dont cost money.
1
THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA
TANZANIA COMMUNICATIONS REGULATORY AUTHORITY
PRESS RELESEASE
DECISION ON INTERCONNECTION RATES IN THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA,
INTERCONNECTION DETERMINATION NO.3 ISSUED IN 2013
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This Determination is made under the Tanzania Communications Regulatory
Authority Act, Chapter 172 of the laws of Tanzania (TCRA Act). In compliance with
the requirements of the TCRA Act, an inquiry was conducted by a Panel of Inquiry
from 17thDecember 2012 to 28th January, 2013. The Panel of Inquiry considered
among others the report of PricewaterhouseCoopers (UK) LLP; the Consultant who
carried out the cost study to establish cost based interconnection rates among the
telecommunications network operators in the United Republic of Tanzania…
your point being?
I am not PF but so what if Silvia was born in Zim? The woman has been in Zed almost whole her life, really lets not be pity. She is a Zambian just like Obama is American or the actor Arnold is American and Kissinger is American
give a monkey a key board and this is what you get this topic has nothing to do with masebos origins.. so why in you sane mind would you post such a thing?
especially chi airtel..very useless…chi mtn the network is bad too
give a monkey a key board and this is what you get this topic has nothing to do with masebos origins.. so why in you sane mind would you post such a thing?
For us in the diaspora that’s nothing new l have a few excepts from a Nigerian paper just today. “Customers’ agonies with mobile phone service providers” from the Punch news paper dated 16 April 2013! Last Thursday, April 11, 2013, between 1:51pm and 2:25pm, I received eight text messages from Airtel, my mobile telephone service provider, each conveying exactly the same message: “ENTER into Airtel’s wonderful internet world with the 4MB ENTRY plan at JUST N50! …”. I don’t know about you, but I have received well over one hundred promotional text messages and phone calls from Airtel this year alone, and I have not been in the country all of the time.” This is just whats going on everywhere it’s not only in Zed.
It’s not true to say that this is worldwide problem – may be you meant to say that it is an African problem. There are no such problems in the UK, Germany or the wide European Union, USA or even Russia. So why do you say it is all over the world? Nigeria is not a good example – all sorts of problems are found in Nigeria anyway….including witchcraft and sacrifices which are manufactured there!
i dont think we want to talk about Nigeria
MTN doesnt even receive SMSs from some foreign providers 3.g. 3G of UK – useless networks!
l totally agree with you and actually it was wrong of me to use the term DIASPORA to describe services, this is truely an African problem, “make money fast on the ingnorant majority while they are still asleep, cause when they wake up the business is dead!” lt doesn’t happen in the first world they woke up a long time ago.
Don’t waste your money sending international texts via networks instead use this website totext.net/ it has a free trial of ten messages. When your trial period runs out just re-register a new email and another phone number; and they don’t send spam messages to your number. You can access the website via your smartphone once registered.
The problem is that in Africa the telecomms business is dominated by those with satellites RSA being one of them and dorminating the market right now!
“Cell phone or landline, same difference” or something to that effect brags Zamtel. I was therefore shocked when I rang Multichoice landline phone using my Zamtel cell phone to be charged over KR2 for 105 secs. Zamtel instead of being a beacon of hope has joined the Multinationals to fleece poor Zambians.
it is true these regulatory boards are just there to reap and not work. They always look for ways to enrich themselves. What is wrong with us Zambians bane?
Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.
What other countries do, regarding vantage points, instead of having several antenas on a hill, high ground or tank, the providers of services come to an agreement and share the space thus reducing the cost to the client l am not too sure about Africa though!
So why isn’t PF owned Zamtel charging lower tariffs for the loved “Zambians” PF are so fond of referencing! Talk is cheap!
They charge lower tariffs. Are you on Mars? When you recharge with ka K5 you can talk the whole day
In Zambia your talk time can finish without calling any number as long as you take time to use your talk time.Your talk time can even finish faster than the time prescribed. In other country that is very illegal and one can seek legal arbitration. These providers just exploit Zambians terribly. The problem is institutions like ZICTA are by name. They are there just for employee salaries and sitting commissions. Its a fallacy these organisations run the way they run or is it the employees of such bodies who are utter useless, they can’t think beyond their noses.
By the way Minister Yaluma, you are all too quiet about the National Airline it’s all part of communications what’s up, he is enjoying SBM’s company!
get up to date my friend, the Chinese will be sorting out our national airline woes.
What do you want a national airline for? Are you willing to pay $250 more than Emirates or KLM for an air ticket just because it has a Zambian flag on its tail? Yes I thought so…so stop this fascination with the national airline and focus on front line services.
Wake up!!
The Board and Management may not be highly exposed individuals in this business. They need a shake up with the infusion of guys (Zambian and/or Non Zambian) with great experience firstly in telecoms service providers in more developed markets.
The issue here is that of “umwana ashenda” and by the way I don’t mean that if you have been to other countries only, I mean working several years in those more developed countries with advanced customer service in telecoms will change the spark!
These network providers like Airtel & Co can charge you hideous charges as we let them do it…moreover you are willing to even help them with a free market survey on the cheap by registering your details in the name of “security”…your docility is overwhelming. Does have to take a minister to notice these things?? In Britain heads of such institutions are hauled in front of Parliamentary Select Committees given a good dressing down and made to account for their inactivity. Its all easy sailing to head the police, ACC, ZESCO in Zambia even a halfwit can head them.
Wake up people!
as for zamtel, the problem is that grz went for certificates and not performance. Mwanakatwe got that job coz of family name and nothing to do with performance. Since lapgreen/brown left, the standards at zamtel ve fallen sharply coz in zambia we adore papers not output. Yaluma should fire mwanakatwe for gross inetia and incompetence.
Yaluma, walasa, kokolapo apopene.
When Miko Rwayitare (undisputed father of African telecoms), Strive Masiyiwa, Mo Ibrahim etc were mapping out mobile networks and creating companies in Africa the Western and Eastern companies sniggered at them that Africa was not ready for the technology now everyone wants a piece of the cake and are making more money whilst providing shoddy services to their African consumers. Its no wonder the wealth of Airtel billionaire owner Sunil Bharti Mittal’s personal wealth and his company’s turnover is growing every year.
*Its no wonder Airtel billionaire owner Sunil Bharti Mittal’s personal wealth and his company’s turnover is growing every year.
but most ministers get free airtime credit from Mtn and airtel privately and no record exists for this
I am one of the many Zambians that complains about these regulatory authorities, look at ERB and ZCTA, These institutions have the so called educated workforce with interest to make huge allowances from workshops and useless meetings. It’s high time the minister abolished these institutions because they have failed to deliver. You can not have regulatory institutions occupying latest very expensive office complex built using tax payers money and yet the tax payer is vanquishing in poverty.
The government should raise above challenge and arrest the situation before the people raise against it. We are watching with interest and time is running out.
Minister Yaluma carry on. We are paying too much for Internet Service – should be reduced by 50%. Service should improve. Zamtel should extend 3G service to Makeni. Tarrifs on mobile phones are very high. Airtel has to review their charges on roaming services. Once you switch on your Airtel phone abroad in no time your account bleeds to death. I have vowed to never take my Airtel phone abroad at all, NAKANA TO QUOTE VP SCOTT. I WILL ONLY USE CELZ. I HAVE ALSO RESORTED TO USE CELZ FOR ALL INTERNAL CALLS.
GRZ should be in the forefront in connecting to undersea cables then outsource the distribution to the private sector to promote competition among providers its working in Kenya where broadband rates are low..instead they are interested in building football stadiums and by elections!
YES, Senior Engineer RTD #15. You are very correct, the poor Zambians are being charged far too much. In the USA, Verizon business land line rate is about $0.05 per minute. Based on the figure you have provided, Zambians are paying $0.23 per minute. The right thing to do by those who own phones in Zambia is protest to the phone companies for being overcharged. Nothing wrong with taking this line of action. One Zambia One Nation.
ngeshi imfwiti namona in d picture ishapalana imyona kwati mapenga .The way they re standing as if ni pa stand still .
The biggest problem Zambia continues to face is the “culture of waiting to be instructed by the so called higher authorities”. look at our Police Service… up to now they can’t move in, ( Zambia Railways Allowance Saga), and carry out an independent Inquiry and if need be arrest those allowance cheats. They are waiting for further instructions from higher authorities. This is not being professional and it amounts to failure to perform according to one’s job description. All regulatory bodies are set up to monitor, audit, enforce the stipulated rules and ensuring the rules are followed without any breach and deal with those breaching the rules. By their failure to perform duties satisfactory, they have elimated themselves from performing those duties and should move out and create…
space for patriotic Zambians who are not compromised with the so called “gifts”, in the name of corruption, Zambians who are ready to serve and make a difference that ill make our country, Zambia, move forward in prosperity. Hon.Ministers, fire them now!!!
Its high time some of these under performing parastatal companies were given to expatriate CEO s. I know it’s a bitter pill to swallow politically but in the long run it wood help us develop.In fact in developed countries they employ foreigners when they can’t find suitable candidates locally and that’s why they are advanced. We cannot continue to suffer in the name of the old fashioned Zambianisation programme when it’s not taking us anywhere apart from enriching a selfish few.
Masebo looks like an import about to be dispatched after a long night of service.
I am sure you were a chief importer in the ruins.
ZICTA is really fu!ked up! The stupid ladies aren’t doing what they are supposed to do! I suggest that any top positions be advertised in the Media full time. ZICTA needs sharp brains not that bunch of “fu!cked-up Zombies” that are running it!
Sata appointed women as they are not easy to corrupt!
In East Africa one can see mobile phone users talking on their phones for hours on end, which can’t happen in Zambia because of the abnormally high charges. Why? Because services, provided by companies such as Vodacom, are extremely cheap. Allow client friendly mobile company as fourth provider, Yaluma.
Parallel Universe:
The judge misdirect himself in law and fact by failing to make specific findings of fact. Everything that has been done so far, if it violates the law can be reversed by the courts through the judicial review granted by the high Court.
I lost a phone three weeks ago and i managed to obtain a search warrant so that the phone can be tracked and recovered. The police officers have been to MTN offices in Kitwe several times but are given childish excuses for the failure to produce a report by MTN officials e.g. lack of toner for the printer. I could hardly understand how such a big company can fail to buy toner for its printers. The poor services delivery by mobile communications companies is due to corruption fueled by either politicians or ZICTA. When is Vodacom coming to Zambia? Please liberalize the bandwidth to maximum on revenue- That resource is more than our raw materials. Please de-register the current private mobile communication companies and get genuine ones who can afford Zambians good service delivery.
Chris, you’re hard working and you know wot you doing. Keep going you have the brains.
ZCITA should not be making IT training schools , they must be requlating the ict service providers
We need ministers like you honourable Yaluma, in all ministries. It is possible do what you have done. God bless you. Its is however, clear that the people at ZICTA are not fully qualified and competent in their work. How long will it take to build schools and train people to serve the interest of the majority zambians? Something more urgent needs to be done.
The problem is you like worshipping personalties…all you need is a dedicated focused “ministry of communication” this sector has been overlooked for far too long in Zambia. This is a billion dollar industry with a potential to create millions of jobs in the private sector….how can you have a Minister of Transport, Works, Supply, Energy & Communications in the 2013? Our Kenyan counterparts have a Ministry of Information & Communication, lead by a passionate energetic savvy minister which is reflected in progressive policies being created; only in Kenya is duty exempt on new smartphones; where 1/3 of it GDP moved around on mobile phone in 2012 courtesy of M-pesa, now look at the duty exemptions in our last budget – sports equipment & carbonated drinks. What does that tell you?
Wake…
^^The problem is you like worshipping personalties…all you need is a dedicated focused “ministry of communication” this sector has been overlooked for far too long in Zambia.This is a billion dollar industry with a potential to create millions of jobs in the private sector – how can you have a Minister of Transport, Works, Supply, Energy & Communications in the 2013? Our Kenyan counterparts have a Ministry of Information & Communication, lead by a passionate energetic savvy minister which is reflected in progressive policies being created; only in Kenya is duty exempt on new smartphones; where 1/3 of its GDP moved around on mobilephones in 2012 courtesy of M-pesa, now look at the duty exemptions in our last budget – sports equipment & carbonated drinks. What does that tell you?
Wake…
zicta….has already been tipped that mtn has contracted a fake chinese company called…huawei ccs comserve…for the maintenance of its network.what is worrying and disturbing is that this company have employed people without qualifications..
no eiz certification…etc…the chinese are paying these fake technicians kr1000 or k1million kwacha unrebased .can zicta,labour ministry and eiz investigate mtn on this.its a big cartel.even airtel has adopted unqualified techs…
Are you sure Huawei Technologies Co. is fake? It is the largest telecommunications equipment maker in the world and is the next big thing working on US networks as well!
Actually, these chaps! especially Airtel, can steal your talking time as you look. They have been told that when a customer is calling the Call Center, the phone must only ring two times and it should be answered but am sure most of you have called these guys before and you can tell me how many times you try before you get a response. Even ZICTA Director General subscribes with one if not all of these operators and they know what am talking about. But do they do anything about it? Thats why the minister is right to say that they are conniving with the operators to swindle Zambians. Call Zamtel call center; its a mess!
I meant to say- they can steal your talk time as you look.
Just bring Vodacom and you will see the mwenyes at Airtel and boers at MTN will reduce their tarrifs!