The Zambian Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has penalised Airtel Zambia with a ZMW4 million (US$143,000) compensation bill following continuous service disruptions on its network.
In a statement, the regulator highlighted a major outage on 2 February, during which data services were unavailable for over three hours across multiple locations, including Lusaka, Southern, Western, Central, and Eastern Provinces.
Due to the service disruption, ZICTA ordered Airtel to compensate affected subscribers with a total estimated value of ZMW4 million. Additionally, the operator must fast-track network infrastructure upgrades, particularly focusing on critical data centres, to enhance network resilience by 28 February. ZICTA also instructed Airtel to implement mechanisms to prevent future outages and ensure compliance with consumer protection guidelines.
ZICTA stated that these corrective measures aim to prevent further service disruptions.
In its 2023 financial results, Airtel Zambia reported revenue of ZMW5.6 billion (US$200 million) and a profit of ZMW1.1 billion (US$40 million).
