Thursday, March 28, 2024

Villagers tired of climbing hills to answer cellphones

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Headman Charles Chipinduka of Kamulombwe village in Chief Mukonchi’s area in Kapiri Mposhi district has appealed to and urged the mobile service providers to consider setting up towers in his area.

Speaking in an interview on Tuesday Headman Chipinduka said his subjects were forced to climbing up hills to access the network.

” The network is very bad for the three mobile services, people only access network when they climb on top of the hills,” he said

He lamented that the Celtel in particular had assured the villagers of installing its tower after many of them acquired their individual handset but to no avail.

” We were told by Celtel that once we have 100 cell phones in the village they will set up a tower but to date nothing is being done and that was in 2005,” he said.

The headman said it was for this reason that he was appealing on behalf of his subjects to other service providers to set up towers in the area.

” We want MTN, CELLZ and Celtel to consider setting up their towers in the area to enable us communicate well,” headman Chipinduka said.

He said lack of communication in the area is greatly affected them in doing business.

” It is very difficult to communicate with our customers, this usually affects the sell of our produce,” he said.

He has assured the three mobile service providers that land would be made available to them for setting up the towers.

45 COMMENTS

  1. “We were told by Celtel that once we have 100 cell phones in the village they will set up a tower but to date nothing is being done and that was in 2005”
    That so unfair,thats deception and are reliable to be sued,cause they entered in a verbal contract,and as long as the villagers can show proof of the 100 cell phones celtel must fulfill there promise,what a service provider.

  2. Blame it on the government. They have been blocking celtel in every way they try to expand outside of Zamtel’s capability.

  3. Why not shift the whole village up the hill top? There’s more fresh air there and life on top is better than below.

  4. This is not the first time am reading a news item concerning “villagers climbing hills” in order to access the network. It seems this problem has taken root. Similar cases were cited by the agriculturalists of Choma and kalomo early this year who cried that the poor networks and lack of proper communication system was among the hurdles encoutered when trying to access latest information on agricultural loan schemes, etc. I believe Zambia’s telephone network providers have adversely neglected rural areas even when they are potential sources of their business. This should not only be restricted to cell phones. Zam-tel should also follow suit in providing this valuable service to rural farmers.

  5. How do they recharge the phones’ batteries anyway, to me that should be more a challenge in a remote area! Have they gone solar? That background picture doesn’t show any evidence of Zesco.

  6. #5 that is a nice joke you made me laugh.#10 its no your concern on how they charge their phones, they can chiefs residents or the boma. there is electricity there.

  7. Soon or later, villagers will be sharing trees with monkeys as their neighbours in the name celphone!

  8. #5 surely your friend is serious and then you make fun of him. Please be more serious when it comes to such matters.

  9. # 10. Dante
    Most of them have gone solar. I was amazed to see how much competition lies in rural Kalomo. I never missed my urban home with electricity while doing a project. We listened to news, watched DVD,and my home had solar energy.There is room for improvement in these villages, only that there is no drive from the”top”.

  10. #10 solar power, it is ubundant in these places, no load shedding like us who live in urban areas who depend on ZESCO to the extent that we have even stopped being creative!!! #5 nice joke, you should have put LOL in brackets to avoid being bashed by people without a sense of humour aka #6

  11. Hullo cellar, this is Chipinduka village, the headman speaking, I am on top of the aunt hill listerning to you all from Malasyia, USA,UK and all UE countries?

  12. What is Telecomms Authority doing about the quality and coverage of the cellphone companies? It is a shame that this organization is very poorly led given by the large number of complaints from citizens of Zambia, ranging from dropped calls, poor signals in populated areas, poor coverage of the country..there are some constituencies I understand like Vubwi where there is no signal at all. Why are these guys at Telecomms Authority sitting on their backsides?

  13. The concerned authorities as you u call them shud come pa China and learn from machocho on how to regulate those standards.
    The dudez are bad news,they do know the stuff to hell.Just do like the agalakacha ministry which sends alot of dudes to have seminars here.
    It will help alot.
    Pa zed pa mwesu fyonsefye nafidula ai,but these dudes are charging us alot for poor services.Thats human deforastationi ooh exploitation4gv me i speak too much choncholi.

  14. #10. some of them have vehicles and threfore charge their cellphones using the cigarette car component.

  15. Hey guys stop trying to be funny coz u r not funny by playing with a serious issue as this.
    These are the types of Headmen needed who think about development

  16. yes even though barely but let me go on top of the hill, then I will hear you clear perhaps not loud enough. Ok, I will call you back when you are on top. Bye

  17. It beggars belief that all these mobile companies are by-passing a town like Kapiri which lies between two bigger towns that they cover effectively, Kabwe and Ndola. Surely it will not be too much trouble for them to supply a mast in the area??? They should not treat the people of Kapiri ( and indeed other smaller towns) like second-class citizens. Its unacceptable!!!!

  18. I didn’t mean to offend anyone with my joke (#5), my own folks are villagers too and I enjoy teasing them. Next time I’ll put LOL at the end as #17 suggested. Sorry.

  19. Ok tanvela! But guys to be honest rural areas have become better places to live! pipo in villages now are better thn u guys in the so called town! they have power(solar,Generators) they watch DSTV,they lit their houses,play good music,wireless internet(have Laptops ,PCs! they don’t pay water bills,rentals,book taxis when go to town,they use bycs or zamfoot(very good exercise)They sell their farm products and get loans etc.
    Villager today have imbranced technology hence them cring for help from the service providers to boost their network for they are bring their businesses down! Infact I’ll would urge lawyer to go and represent this villagers in court for loss of business and damages etc

  20. Ha enisha bondate Mucwani ni mabasi koo? I think so how you are right,Pipo in villages are truely imbrancing IT. I am impressed! its time for network providers to expand their coverage!

  21. # 29…Ernest Mukelabai
    (Ha enisha bondate Mucwani ni mabasi koo?) What the hell is this?

    Ambebo sunu ndilabelesha citonga.IT yasika kumisheesu. Tuyanda ma cellular a wireless. Twalema kutanta ma Hill. A kushangombo mutupe ma networks biya. Mubambile ba mwanawasa a cell-tell.

    ( NB. This is just for no,29..thanks all)

  22. #30 Hee! man be sensible, if you want to write to individuals use their private blog!! This is public and pipo cant help but read yr love letter!

  23. Its very upsetting to read all the negative comments on Villagers. We didn’t have cell phones few years back. Why can’t villagers hope for the services that town dwellers who perhaps don’t even have a bed to sleep on are managing even to the extent of stealing phones.

  24. Eeetah kamwamba banene! kulibonesha ta! Lets be proud of our language afterall they are all official,I will make sure Celtel and other network provider instal booster in villages! its very important(Viktig)
    Mushale kabotu badala!Mupile hande kwahae!

  25. #34 fuseki you chicken lover. how else can you explain the death of innocent 7 chickens?

  26. I dont think it is only the reception which is the problem in Zambia concerning cell 4nes. Its very costly to run a mobile 4ne in Zambia. When one tops up the phone units go like madness. I think service providers are just ripping (stealing) innocent service users. Consummer Watchdog do something about it.

  27. #35 you must be out of your mind! what the hell are u talking about? Anyways I’ll not fuseki back! but I just 4give u! Take care and be happy with your family!I wont respond to your comments bye!

  28. #35 there is something called civilisation people write on this blog in Bemba, has anyone commented the way you and #31 have, very strange, for the record I speak and understand 4 of the 7 major languages, it would be important for other people to also make an effort. What a shame that 44 years after independence people are still as trivial as the two of you!!

  29. Imwe guys and girls villagers are also Zambians stop insulting them.They need to communicate.

    You talk like that because your parents are in town.Stop being childish and respect people.

    Bamwaice mukule.

  30. Zamtel is the answer to all of Zambia s telecommunications problems, all we need to do is to support it and control it after all it is our company.The rest of guyz celtel or zamcell mtn are here just to get money from us.Patriotism with a vission is all we need guyz,Go Zambia Go

  31. the government need to come up with rural development schemes/projects so as the rural areas also can enjoy the same things people in big towns like lusaka are enjoying.and the communication authority or the government should scrap that tax they charge on top ups coz its killing zedians big time

  32. ZAMTEL must be placed under new management. The guys running this company have lamentably failed to understand that they are the vanguard to development. Yet they sit in their offices doing nothing to ensure that ZAMTEL becomes THE communications leader of Zambia! I do not believe in privatisation because our problems with ZAMTEL are nothing to do with ownership, but its management performance and practices.

  33. I think alot of the comments above have not taken this issue very seriously. It must be those village jokes some of them are funny i must admit but then i realise it is childish.

    I think the service providers need to do more to improve coverage in rural areas to try and alleviate the communication problems there. Rural areas also deserve a better communication system just as the people in town.

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