Zambia Telecommunications Limited (ZAMTEL) says it is prepared to withstand the competition from the fourth mobile service provider to be introduced in the country.
ZAMTEL Public Relations Manager Charles Kachikoti told ZANIS in Lusaka today that the company through its old and recent projects is currently expanding capacity to improve service provision on its Cell-Z mobile cellular network.
Mr. Kachikoti said the current installation of the optic fiber network in Lusaka and later countrywide to link the country to other African countries will accommodate more customers because of increased capacity.
He said currently the company has over 155 000 subscribers in the country and is targeting a total of over one million individual service users once the project is complete.
Mr. Kachikoti expressed hope that the installation of the optic fiber network will also reduce the company’s operational costs between 30 to 50 percent.
He added that the reduction in operational costs will further trickle down to customers at the grassroots through reduced rates and improved services.
The ZAMTEL public relations manager has since urged Zambians to continue supporting the countries’ indigenous mobile phone service provider.
Does anyone know if CellZ offers EDGE and when they will migrate to WCDMA/UMTS?
Not yet mwana. I called they said by mid year things will be in place. Can’t wait. May be then we’ll have cheaper and faster internet more so that optic fibre is being installed. Mobile internet rates are not friendly. Worse Celtel, K1600/Mb. MTN is relatively cheaper, K990/Mb, although I’ve problems connecting at times. But when connected more so to PC, MTN gives me a transfer speed of about 5Kb/second pretty faster than Celtel which gives about 3kb/second.
#1 They haven’t gone that far, but i understand the equipment is already in. Cell Z is without doubt the best network in Zed. Celtel is the Sh!ttest.
We shall patiently wait for all those services. I assure our “country’s indigenous mobile phone service provider” all my patriotic support till we reach. Cell Z remain the best network and for sure Celtel is the Sh^tt3st!
Good news 4 CellZ. Let them quickly install the mobile internet so that we escape the exploitation from the others providers. Its too expensive to use CELTEL mobile on PC man! Rather go to an internet cafe. Dont know they r damn expensive!
Good day
In countries were the telephony industry is liberalised like Ghana, Sudan, Kenya,and Tanzania; Celtel in these countries happens to be the cheapest provider. High celtel charges in zambia are as aresult of the indirect monopoly created by your own govts stupid protection of Zamtel. Zamtel should concentrate on fixed lines. 94 000 lines in a country of 12 million is shameful.
Mbulawa, the telecoms trends globally point to fixed line market has been dwindling, and incumbents like Zamtel need to move quickly in the wireless space, hence the birth of Cell Z. The drivers have been vandalism, time to market disadvantages, the continued evolution of wireless interfaces, the linear relationship between cost and distance for wireline networks etc.
In addition, there is a drive towards FMC(Fixed Mobile Convergence), with IMS being the next step after the NGN softswitch.
Guys can i comment on Cell Z and hope this reaches the ZAMTEL management. Many people have Cell Z cards, but because most of the people they communicate to are on Celtel, they end up making Cell Z cards as stand-by.
Now few notes need to be made in terms of customer services. The only Cell Z can rise to the top is to keep the calling rates low. I just ready recently in the papers that Cell Z was increasing their rates to K22 per second. You cannot hike charges before you are popular.
Keep your charges low, and improve on the services. One critical one right now is the need for Cell Z to provide Mobile Internet like their competitors in the country.
Guys you have heard, we are the customers, do something so we can be proud of this service.
I am one customers that had three sim cards with Cell Z, but like i said because the card is usually a stand-by, i keep on losing them. But if you were cheap and reasonable i could have kept my sim in the phone and giving you profits.
Zamtel being the best my foot. Zamtel is shit. With the coming of the fourth operator, they will stick again to the bottom continuously where they belong. They have infrastructure but they have shit managers including their Directorate which is govt and tribally influenced. they have no business sense and cant hold on to their best Engineers and other human resources.
This is what happens when you have a management team that doesnt understand the technology and the trends.
What are they still doing with 2G?
Mubanga the global market in fixed lines has not been dwindling. Almost all OECD countries are at or nearly at full capacity in fixed telephony. For your own information most EU countries use broadband internet connection and all of them will have switched over to digital television by 2015. This has been made possible by a strong platform based on fixed telephony. South Korea, Taiwan and Japan all are completely wired. It is not a question of either or between telephony. Let us develop both.
Lack of internet on Cell-Z is the major reason why I have shunned it. Another is reason that the moment you go CellZ, people stop calling you because it becomes expensive for them to do so.
The news of a fourth Mobile phone service provider is good to me. The current three are exploitative. I hope the fourth provider will come with 3G and/or HSDPA.
I hope the comming of a fourth provider will stiffen the competition to the point where we can begin to smile.
Makani.
The new operator should definitely come with R5/R6 and provide services like MBMS. We could then watch the World Cup in 2010 on our fones. Also after a while they can evolve to HSPA+ to enable 2×2 MIMO + HOM. From there they can move to LTE. This would put pressure on the other three!
The name of the fourth mobile provider is Korza Telecommunications Company. Korza stands for Korea Zambia. They have the most latest technologies. 3G, Broadband intenet on all phones. Korza will also apply for landline licence to have code 022…! We are not failing the Zambian pipo at all. Well trained Engineers and marketers and other professionals are already trained. Look out for them soonest. Korza Telecoms, ‘The real one’
So who owns this corza telecomunications an about when is it comming 2 rescue us from these stupidly expensive operators.but i hope this corza will b competitively cheaper and not expensive.
Korza you mean the one involving Mutesha who made such a balls up of Zamtel when he was in charge ? Sorry boss. If Mutesha is invloved it is already a point against it. Technology is not the answer. Quality of Service andd accessibility is. Fixation with 3G, EDGE, GPRS HDSPA etc are worth nothing if the link is always droppibng and coverage is spotty.
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