MTL admits network glitches, blames system failure

Blantyre-based Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) customer Charles Mhango is not a happy lot.

Despite owning an MTL handset, he has been unable to make calls and recharge the handset for over one month now. If by chance the call is successful, it drops within a minute.

“Each time I want to load airtime, my attempts have proved futile and I end up piling the airtime in my wallet.

“At first I thought it was something to do with my handset, but when I wanted to replace it with another one, I was told they had run out of stock,” he laments.

Mhango is just one of many Malawians in the same predicament.

MTL has acknowledged that there is a problem and has attributed it to system failure.

In an e-mailed response on Friday, MTL corporate affairs manager Tina Das said they have since communicated the problem to their customers through the media.

She said: “It is a technical problem where our customers are not able to recharge their accounts.  Again, call drops and unsuccessful attempts have been noted. We have referred the matters to the suppliers of our system and they are working on it.

“We have noted all customer concerns and we are working on bringing solutions to those issues that will improve customer experience.”

Das said MTL is exploring the possibility of bringing on the market gadgets that will enable its customers to communicate based on modern data-centric applications.

A consumer rights activist, John Kapito, who is also executive director of Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama), in an interview on Sunday, expressed disappointment with MTL, saying the situation has put consumers at a disadvantage.

“Communication is vital, and we all know the significance of communication in today’s world. However, such a situation puts one to question whether consumers are being considered in this case,” he said.

In its 2016 first quarter Quality of Service Report, Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) faulted MTL for not making significant improvements compared to the previous three quarters of 2015 in as far as key performance indicators (KPIs) targets are concerned.

The regulator urged MTL to put in measures to cto meet important targets, especially in areas of fault clearance and call failure rate.