Regulator writes to Zain over network failure

After an outage last week that left thousands of customers disconnected, the Communications Authority of Zambia (CAZ) has directed Zain to quickly address its collapsed network or face punishment.

“We have written to Zain to express our dissatisfaction over the network failure and to compel the company to explain to its customers what is causing the network failure,” said Ngabo Nankonde, CAZ's acting director of international and public relations, during The Zambia Agriculture and Commercial Show on Monday.

CAZ is pushing for stiffer telecommunication laws and increased penalties in order to make mobile service providers in the country more accountable for network reliability.

Last week, Zain Zambia Public Relations Manager Bridget Nundwe said the collapse of the network was partly caused by maintenance work that the company is undertaking.

CAZ, however, insisted that the service provider is stealing from its customers by offering shoddy services and should be penalized.