By CHUSA SICHONE –
THE Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) has directed the three mobile service providers to introduce toll free numbers to be used by subscribers whose SIM cards are erroneously deactivated.
This follows complaints by some mobile phone subscribers that their SIM cards were deactivated even after registering them before the January 31, deadline.
ZICTA public relations manager Ngabo Nankonde said in a statement availed to the Times of Zambia in Lusaka that the authority had instructed Airtel to introduce 4338, while Zamtel and MTN 101 as their
toll free phone lines to attend to queries from their subscribers.
“To attend to errors, service providers have been directed to have dedicated Toll free lines and staff to attend to queries from consumers who previously registered but had been erroneously deactivated,” She said.
Ms Nankonde admitted that a margin of error was expected and accepted in any process similar to the magnitude of the SIM card registration exercise, but that ZICTA would not tolerate errors which were beyond the accepted level.
