ZICTA gives mobile operators 21 days to fix quality concerns

ZICTA gives mobile operators 21 days to fix quality concerns

The Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority has directed Infratel and IHS Towers to submit clear and practical measures within 21 days that will address the deterioration in network service quality which members of the public have complained about. ZICTA director general Collins Nswana said citizens have been subjected to unacceptable call drop rates, low signal reliability, unstable mobile internet and limited throughput at various usage periods. He said that Zambia’s people deserve consistent and dependable mobile connectivity because communication has become a central layer of daily economic and social participation.

Nswana said the reason this intervention is targeted at infrastructure providers is because this is the layer where the foundational signal environment originates. In Zambia the public experiences mobile service through operators such as MTN, Airtel and Zamtel, but these retail networks depend on the quality and resilience of towers, backhaul systems, power stability, fibre distribution, radio system calibration and equipment capacity owned or managed by Infratel and IHS. Nswana said that without structural engineering corrections at this backbone level, downstream operators will remain restricted in what they can deliver to their subscribers.

He said ZICTA is not asking for intentions or broad concepts but for a technical breakdown of measures that will restore voice stability, improve coverage, reduce call drop patterns, strengthen data consistency and provide more reliable connectivity for rural communities. He said the regulator expects engineering solutions that can be quantified, measured, timed and verified. Nswana said this directive is a compliance obligation and not a symbolic request.

He said Zambia’s development model has shifted to a digital dependent environment, therefore outages and inconsistent communications have direct economic effect. He stated that banking transactions, tax filing, agriculture advisory systems, irrigation equipment signalling, health access coordination, transport dispatch software, land registry interactions, voter registration database linkages, civil registration processes, corporate ICT platforms, education management systems and online payment rails all rely on stable digital communication layers. Nswana said that mobile quality is now directly linked to national performance indicators.

He said the regulator is aware that citizens no longer treat poor connectivity as a minor inconvenience but as a service failure that affects economic participation. Nswana said that user expectations are valid because consumers are paying for services that must meet quality requirements. He added that poor connectivity delays business decisions, slows information flow and affects productivity. Nswana said the regulator expects infrastructure operators to demonstrate clear evidence of real engineering work rather than high level presentations.

ZICTA has therefore demanded that each infrastructure provider demonstrate how they will close capacity gaps, remove known dead zones, stabilise rural corridor networks, strengthen base stations where signal performance is inconsistent, improve backhaul redundancy, update equipment that is producing unstable performance, and adopt operational upgrades that create measurable improvement. Nswana said this directive aligns with the need to ensure Zambia’s digital ecosystem remains functional, reliable and fit for development.