Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Parliamentary Committee recommends liberalising International gateway

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The Parliamentary Committee on Communications, Transport, Works and Supply has called on government to liberalise the international gateway.

Committee Chairperson, Douglas Syakalima, says liberalising the international gateway would result in reduced tariffs.

Mr. Syakalima says government’s policy to maintain only one international gateway may disrupt the telecommunications services in the country.

He says this is because ZAMTEL, which operates the international gateway is currently experiencing financial and operational difficulties.

He says security concerns raised on the liberalisation of the international gateway are unfounded.

Mr. Syakalima was speaking in parliament when he presented a report compiled by the parliamentary committee on Communications, Transport, Works and Supply.

He further said ZAMTEL is insolvent and that the firm needs to be restructured and re-capitalised.
[ZNBC]

44 COMMENTS

  1. That would be good, it’s bad enough Zamtel having a monopoly but if they can’t even operate properly then them having a monopoly is very counterproductive

  2. SONY uzako bezeku kamba investment,investment kuzambia at zamtell ya pwalala kaili obvoius banga zonkelane, nga bali serious,or else politician aza wineer bid then we say corruption endyet no competition

  3. This is very good developement indeed. We only hope that the operations of the gateway will be left to Zambians and not sell to outsiders

  4. This is very retrogressive!!!!!! Look at the countries that lead in telecomms – find out if their gateways are liberalised then have the nerve to comment. This will compromise not only security but also our sovereignty. No. 17 look at the mines who are in charge? 16 you must be part of the foreign lobby! 15 do you really know what you are talking about? 9 Zamtel may have monopoly but it is a state enterprise – let all those advocating this either lauch a new satellite into space or erect a new earth satellite to compete with Zamtel’s Mwembeshi. What all you pipo dont understand is that Zed does not develop bcoz all the so called investors or infestors as Mr Sata refers to them =

  5. Do not bring with them the much needed investment into infrastructure and hence they tend to leave whenever they plse. If they were made to invest in infrastructure they would not leave at will bcoz they would wait until their returns on the investment were realised. So if you let them have a liberal share of our gateway which came from Zed tax payer money, they will profit and leave as all the others have done.

  6. So why not leave the status quo – because Zain (celtel) and MTN (telecel) have raked in a lot of money even under the current scenario so why change things? Just to profit outsiders and compromise security?

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  7. #18 – 20, I salute you those are really words of wisdom! I wish you were apart of the parliamentary committee.Walikwata amano iwee!!

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  8. PEOPLE WHEN ARE WE EVER GOING TO SUPPORT A ZAMBIAN COMPANY LOOK AT ZAMTEL IT HAS MANY EMPLOYEES (ZAMBIANS) THEY NEED TO BE HELPED . THESE INVESTORS ARE JUST HERE TO REAP. LET US HELP MOTHER ZAMBIA BY NOT SELLING THE LAST WE HAVE

  9. some are saying the topic is boring,may be its because, most people here are not in Zambia and dont what is going on or they dont understand our telecom Act. First I get suprised when Zain and MTN cry that the gateway should be liberalised. The gateway has already been liberalised, what is need is just to pay CAZ 11m dollars. however, our good investors (who are making 20m dollars per month), are not willing to pay this amount of money. So when they say, International gateway need to be liberalised, they mean, the gateway license should be give to them at the song. What Zain is making currently, I dont think they fail to pay 11m for the gateway. just find time and read from CAZ web

  10. Early this either Benin or Ivory Cost increase the GSM license to 250m dollars. so what is 11m dollars CAZ is asking them to pay. Do we need to give them everything for free?

  11. Zamtel made very big mistake of puting that Tembo man as MD. The guy is 100% engineer and has never done any business in his life, only worked for Zamtel whole his life. I always tell people, the kind of management Zamtel has, it makes Zamtel to underperform and create any excuse for our corrupt politicians to start thing of selling it at the cheaper price. in this day and age, all telecom companies are doing well. This year instead of expanding CELL-Z to every corner of Zambia, they started fibre project in lusaka, whose returns are long term. it does not make sense, for Zamtel to be making a loss of 150 billion Kwacha, while Zain is making 20m dollars per month.

  12. Zamtel bought a new gateway from Errickson last year. But they are failing to maintain it. What Govt need to do is change the whole management or sell certain sections of Zamtel to ZAMBIAN COMPANIES.

  13. Zambians u let yoselves down. y NOT TALK of creating capacity for Zamtel to to handle the international gateway. The thing is already liberalised. Just ask Zain or MTN to pay the required fee period. Y do u want them use the gateway free of charge wen it was put up at a great cost by the visionary politicians at the time. they ll keep on asking for tax holiday, gateway, and tomorrow they ask for yo woman in the name of investors.

  14. They should not open up int gateway.They need to restructure zamteland make it more business minded – look at BT.innovation is what we need.

  15. I think people that know about this telecom international gateway should tell what it is,how it works & what the benefits of liberalising it are in relation to it being left to be controlled via govt thru the Communication Authority or whoever it falls under,i simply have no clue what the fuss is all about,i have seen that MP’s have been arguing about it for a while but all i know is that currently,communication between Zambia & the rest of the world is unacceptably poor.Sometimes emails from friends & family in Zambia take two days to reach me in the UK.Making calls is also difficult,this problem has been going on for the last 3 to 4 months so security has been compromised already.

  16. Afrofusion is right, why the hell let the gateway to others. Is the Govt really thinking. Instead of bikering about the so called liberalising of the gateway, talk about modernising it to internationally acceptable standard.

  17. It’s quite clear reading the views presented thus far that those who’ve never known a liberalised economy are scared of change; fear of the unknown perhaps. Let’s not compare ourselves with countries at the bottom, as some have suggested above. That’s not progressive. Why not compare ourselves with the best? Some may recall Mr Robinson Mwansa, former Zesco MD, and how he aimed for Zesco to be like UK’s National Grid. It’d didn’t happen, but he had a dream. Does Zamtel have similar aspirations?

    Let’s also not forget the state of telecoms before the private companies came on the scene. It is fair to say that Zamtel had totally failed the Zambian public!

  18. no.35 KING waitaya Afrofusion (34)is supporting the move but u are against (but agreeing with him ) chizungu pliz chakupitani!!!!

  19. Proposed Minimum Salaries for various Categories in Government:

    Ministers – K 20 million or US $ 5,500 per month
    Deputy Ministers/PSs/ Chief Executives in Statutory Bodies – K 17 million or US $ 4,500 per month
    Directors, Senior Doctors, Phd Senior Lecturers – K 15 million or US $ 3,500 per month
    Middle management supervisory staff K 10 – K 12 million.
    Policeman/ teacher with degree and minimum 4 years experience K 8 – K 10 million per month.

    This is just an average and if you MMMD cadres are reading this blog, do ,your homework if you are to survive in 2011 elections. This is what PF was making noise about. Impact is that motivation will be up, corruption will atleast decline

  20. The players should tell us how much the new tariffs would be before we get into this stuff. Multinationals ALWAYS shift the GOAL POST. TIA – This is Africa!!!

  21. Thats why E111 should have been taken #37.
    Anyhow, its so expensive to call Zambia mwe! But it will even be more expensive unless real measures and conditions are given to thoz Chinez infestors, oh, investors, kaili we know this already,in Zambia its Choncholi-choncho!!!!

  22. ‘The Parliamentary Committee on Communications, Transport, Works and Supply has called on government to liberalise the international gateway. Committee Chairperson, Douglas Syakalima, says liberalising the international gateway would result in reduced tariffs.’Good job Parlaimentary Committe under Mr Syakalima.Is this Mr Douglas Syakalima the mighty UPND’s Siavonga MP?It appears the UPND knows exactly what Zambia needs although the uninformed electorate vote teribly towards it when election times come.Anyway, 2011 is neart and the doo-to-door and person-to-person Campaign for the UPND will work this time around. For REAL change is needed by all Zambians now and not in the future.

  23. #28. Hangandu, I have been expressing a similar comment to yours on this LT for some time now, but many sympathisers of Zamtel think that I do not know what is happening at Zamtel.

    Anyway, let us hope that one day Zamtel will have a(n) MD who is well and carefully qualified for that position so that all Zambians can begin to truly benefit from it.

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