Airtel has lately being at the receiving end of customer and public rebuke following network service failure such as airtime top up, royalty points, the promised 3G internet service among other things. On the other hand MTN and Zamtel seem to benefit from the problems that their competitor is having as customer claim switching to from Airtel.
QUALITY OF SERVICE
The quality of service in the mobile phone sector leaves much to be desired.
To start with, some of these service providers make promises that they end up failing to fulfill. For instance, the royalty programme by Airtel is a complete sham. Most people with gold level points have not received their gold status cards and hence they are unable to enjoy the benefits of being a high user on the network as promised by the service provider.
These days it is nearly impossible to get your points redeemed into sms or minutes. It appears the system is experiencing terminal failure. Unless you call (and get lucky to be answered), your need for redeeming sms or reward minutes would expire whilst you try in futility.
Faults are normal in any technology based business, but communication with clients in such instances can mitigate a crisis of customer infuriation. This is where our service providers worsen the problem.
Zambian mobile service providers need to improve their customer care services. It is rare that your call to 111 would be answered within 2 minutes. You will have to try several times before you are placed on hold for longest possible time, and if the call doesn’t cut then you may manage to speak to a customer care assistant, who will most likely not solve your problem but instead ask you to try accessing the service in question after 2 hours.
In the 21st century, in a liberal economy, driven boldly by the market, service providers carry on heedlessly exploiting customers. If these companies do not make changes their days are definitely numbered. The question is who is going to get 90% of the market by doing what customers want. Who is going to leverage the grievances of the customer to gain a larger market share?
COST OF SERVICES
The cost of mobile phone services in Zambia is a perfect reflection of social and economic injustice. Most of these providers are too lazy to expand their market reach and hence they want to maximize the smaller segment they service for exorbitant profits. This kind of exploitation has adverse effects on the economy.
The cost of a call is still essentially high. The cost of data on the other hand is even worse. At a time when we should be broadening the use of ICT and data services in Zambia, our service providers seem not to understand the simple economics of it. If it’s affordable people will use it. But just because people are using it doesn’t mean you have to make it more expensive.
ZICTA must intervene and demand an outright reduction for data services costs as well as an improvement in the delivery of the same.
Cell C of South Africa offers 100MB at US$6.18 which is valid for 30 Days. Airtel Zambia offers 100MB at US$17. Why is it that Zambia, where the income levels are lower than in South Africa, and where the market is widely untapped, is where the cost is over 175% higher than South Africa? In the USA you will receive unlimited internet plus download for a month at US$15.
Why are Airtel, MTN, and Zamtel exploiting Zambians?
THE IMPORTANCE OF PUTTING THINGS RIGHT
We are at a time in Zambia when we need to reduce the cost of doing business and the cost of living. That is the only way we are going to improve the standard of life in this country. Communication is vital for business, education, industry and development. It is probably going to take one of these service providers taking service delivery to world class standards and making the cost level with the developed world that those who have been shunning data service will begin to jump on course.
The service provider who adheres will get more customers moving over to get a better quality service at the right cost.
The country will benefit because now the economy can see resources released to enhance business and education, resources that are currently stifled because of poor internet at high costs. If not, people will soon move to fixed internet (with the advent of fibre optics) and mobile phone providers will be white elephants. After all VOIP at high speeds can render mobile phone services unnecessary, unless otherwise.
I totally agree with you here, the cost of mobile communication services in Zambia is exorbitantly high and if not corrected soon, will have retrogressive consequences on our nicely flourishing economy(which is, I must say right next to our democracy, is pride of every Zambian, patriotic or not!) . The very painful part is when you consider the highly important and strategic role that this sector has in our economy, which has been seeing, finally, some steady growth of late. Zambia's current economic glory identifies the informal sector (mainly SMEs) as a major contributor. It is a very well known fact, that SMEs are famous for conducting a large part of their business through mobile phones and the internet, I know Zambian mobile service providers have recognized this, they say it repeatedly at almost every PR gathering/event they have, one would then automatically expect that they would match it in deed! But still they go on charging exorbitantly and worse still the quality of service provided does not equal the pricing! Complaints are rarely heard/attended to and customer care staff seem not to care about the customer that they are supposedly caring for!
ReplyDeleteI hope the authority in charge (ZICTA), attends to this soonest!
Zambian mobile service providers should start contributing fairly and nurturing this economic growth, just like everyone is. It has taken us a lot of years to get to hear, and the journey hasn’t been easy, we need all players on board.