Airtel Zambia has been instructed to compensate its customers with approximately four million Zambian kwacha due to a major data services outage that took place on Sunday, February 2, 2025. The disruption affected several provinces across Zambia, including Lusaka, Southern, Western, Central, and Eastern. The outage lasted for about three hours, causing widespread inconvenience for users who rely on the mobile network for business, education, and personal communication.
The directive was issued by the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA), the country’s telecommunications regulator. Hanford Chaaba, ZICTA’s Corporate Affairs Manager, confirmed the compensation order in a statement released on Tuesday, emphasizing the negative impact the outage had on consumers. “The outage significantly inconvenienced consumers, and Airtel has been instructed to compensate all affected customers accordingly,” Mr. Chaaba stated.
In addition to the compensation, ZICTA has mandated Airtel Zambia to implement stronger mechanisms to prevent such network failures in the future. The regulator stressed the need for the mobile service provider to address the root causes of the disruptions and to improve the resilience of their infrastructure. ZICTA’s statement also highlighted the ongoing concern about the recurring nature of service interruptions on Airtel’s network.
Airtel Zambia, one of the major telecom providers in the country, has faced increasing criticism over the reliability of its services. As digital connectivity becomes an essential part of everyday life, with a particular emphasis on remote work and education, the effects of network outages have raised alarms both within the regulatory body and among the public.
Despite the directive, Airtel Zambia has not yet made an official statement detailing how the compensation will be distributed to the affected customers. Given the scale of the network’s reach, some have expressed concerns that the compensation amount may be too small to adequately address the inconvenience caused. With over 10 million subscribers, the compensation translates to less than 0.40 kwacha per affected user, prompting skepticism about whether such measures will have a meaningful impact.
The issue of consistent service disruptions has placed increasing pressure on both Airtel Zambia and ZICTA to ensure that service reliability is upheld and that consumer rights are properly protected. As the telecommunications industry becomes more vital to Zambia’s economic and social infrastructure, both regulators and service providers will need to prioritize network stability and responsiveness to avoid further disruptions.
