The disparity between mobile phone network availability and its absence in Zambia is evident in Lusaka’s plush buildings that exude an aura of prosperity that unfortunately evaporates as one travels a few kilometres away from the nerve centre of the city to reveal the non-existence of reliable network s from Airtel, MTN and ZAMTEL.
This sharp contrast between the mobile phone network service haves and have-nots in Zambia is something  to be concerned about by the Zambia
Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA).  But do Airtel, MTN and ZAMTEL have what it takes to foster viable and congestion-free network service provision that could bring about an equitable balance of network coverage in both urban and rural Zambia?
What have they done to eradicate the network coverage imbalance?
Literally quite unsatisfactory.  Would the government’s option to introduce a fourth mobile service provider bring about any improvement and network service change? Absolutely (Daily Nation, October 21, 2015).
People have been watching and waiting to see how much rural Zambia has been adequately covered following ZICTA’s roll-out of scores of telecommunication towers in the country’s chiefdoms.
If  indeed telecom facilities have improved in these chiefdoms, it would also be a stamp on the reputation of the PF government and determine how serious ZICTA is regarding the availability of network coverage in chiefdoms.
Needless to say, mobile money is an innovative success story that has completely changed the country’s business terrain.
It has empowered the local people, from the capital city Lusaka to rural outposts, by giving them what had hitherto been impossible owing to a banking
regime with strict regulatory frameworks. It has empowered citizens to be able to engage in financial transactions turning the banking industry upside down.
A person no longer needs to walk into a bank to undertake costly money transfers, open a bank account, weather long queues, and wait for
hours or days for a single transfer to be effected. All they need is a mobile phone and reliable network. The mobile phone has become a bank account, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) gadget and an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) all rolled into one.
Perhaps most profound of all is the democratising influence of mobile phones. In 2011, Zambia ended 20 years of MMD rule when President
Rupiah Banda accepted defeat at the polls.
The customary vote rigging was made impossible by journalists and election monitors armed with mobile phones relaying the count from each polling station to independent tallying centres and commercial radio stations as part of the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT). And so will the fourth mobile phone service provider be able to transform the telecom status quo in rural areas? Try it. But let it focus and provide network service  in far flung areas.
Mubanga Luchembe,
LUSAKA