History of Telecommunications in Zambia
Voice - Fixed
The first manual phone exchange in Zambia, then Northern Rhodesia, was installed in Livingstone as long ago as 1913. The network continued to develop, with the main backbone infrastructure along the line of rail, as seen from the following map.
There were always challenges in serving the more rural areas, not least with under-capitalisation, ageing equipment (for which spares are hard to source), theft, and populations that made for poor business models, leaving services, despite the good efforts of the authorities, skewed to the urban areas:
 |
 |
In common with most countries Zambia’s post and telecommunications authority (the PTC) split some 15 years ago, with the formation of Zamtel and Zampost, both remaining in State hands to the current time. Also in common with elsewhere the infrastructure of the conventional PSTN, particularly the copper cabling and older exchanges in rural areas, has led to a decline in the levels of service and the actual number of lines supported, further aggravated by the introduction and expansion of the cellular phone service.
 |
|
The total number of exchanges currently in operation is 88 with an installed capacity of 162,500 lines. Of this capacity only 90,600 are working as at July 2009 representing a utilisation capacity of 56%. It is also noted that in a number of rural areas the PSTN exchanges have to be powered by their own generators on a 24/7 basis, giving rise to uneconomically high costs on a per capita basis.
Zamtel also has a significant backbone infrastructure - currently dominated by national microwave capacity – but now being expanded with the introduction of fibre capacity on the main north-south routes, and through to Tanzania. Further details are below.
The Government has declared its intention to privatise Zamtel during the current financial year and an external adviser has already drawn up a valuation and recommendations for the sale. Zamtel also operates GSM services (CellZ) and an ISP (Zamtel Online), currently within the one company.
Voice - Mobile
As in many countries in the region the rise of mobile cellular telephony over the last 12 or more years has been dramatic. The country has moved from a position where less than 5% of the population would be likely to use a phone in their lifetime to one where almost 50% of the adult population own a phone, and some 80% of the population is already covered by at least one of the 3 mobile operators. The rise, even over just the last 5 years, has been spectacular:
|
Year |
Subscribers |
Per 100 Inhabitants |
Growth Rate (%) |
|
2003 |
204,150 |
1.9 |
46.6 |
|
2004 |
413,120 |
3.73 |
102.4 |
|
2005 |
949,558 |
8.3 |
129.85 |
|
2006 |
1,663,051 |
14.37 |
75.14 |
|
2007 |
2,639,026 |
22.54 |
58.7 |
|
2008 |
3,539,003 |
26.95 |
34.06 |
|
2009 (til 31/3) |
3,646,909 |
29.89 |
|
A number of subscribers have more than one SIM card, so the above figures can be slightly misleading but the distribution amongst the 3 players indicates that they will not be far wrong:
Zain Zambia: over 2.6m subscribers (across all 72 Districts)
MTN Zambia: over 800,000 subscribers (across 67 Districts)
CellZ: over 170,000 subscribers (across 44 Districts)
 |
Maps of the coverage show that all 72 districts have signal in at least the district capital, with only deep rural areas still to be reached. |
 |
Zain Current GSM Coverage |
 |
MTN Current GSM Coverage |
 |
CellZ Current and Planned GSM Coverage |
Whilst CellZ started offering analogue services, and MTN (formerly Telecel) offered CDMA, all now operate GSM networks.
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for the three mobile network operators in 2008 were as follows:
|
Service Provider |
ARPU on air time per year |
ARPU on air time per month |
|
Zain Zambia |
US$ 87.15 |
US$ 7.26 |
|
MTN Zambia |
US$ 61.77 |
US$ 5.15 |
|
Zamtel/Cell Z |
US$ 40.91 |
US$ 3.41 |
Some 99.6% of customers operate phones on a pre-paid basis. All networks offer the facility to transfer pre-paid talk-time to the phone of another customer on that network, such as a relative in the village. One key driver to the continued uptake of phones, especially in more rural areas, has been the lowering of the price of the handset – now down to just a few dollars.
In addition to the standard GSM, Zain operates GPRS data services across its whole network, and EDGE in Lusaka and the Copperbelt, which is gradually to be replaced with 3.5G, whose roll-out is currently in the test phase, under a temporary licence from CAZ. MTN also offer GPRS/EDGE and have their 3G roll-out planned.
Value added services on all networks include SMS, MMS and WAP. Zain also support use of Blackberry devices.
There remain areas that are not covered by either PSTN or cellphone services. The Communications Authority, under their universal access scheme, are reviewing incentives that could be offered to the existing GSM companies to expand their reach to the less profitable regions. In addition some projects have arisen which provide voice access to some locations using satellite-based technologies. Further details are found below.
The majority of in-country backhauling on the GSM networks is now done terrestrially via microwave links, and the use of VSAT for in-country traffic is disappearing. All operators also share some backbone infrastructure from Zamtel and ZESCO (the power company, which has its own communications backbone, as below).
At this point in time Zamtel holds a monopoly on international voice traffic, and the two other cellphone companies have to transit their international calls via Zamtel, keeping prices higher than might prevail in a competitive environment (a call from Zambia to the UK costing some $1.50 per minute via the cellular operators). The Government has committed to liberalising the international gateway during the current financial year. The cellphone companies have long been ready with the appropriate infrastructure.
Note that costs of calls are held high partly by the fact that all international traffic currently has to be transited by satellite, as there are no long-distance terrestrial links out of the country, not least because of the Zambia’s landlocked position. However, this is also changing, and routes are currently being opened up by fibre to South Africa (via Namibia or Botswana) and thus out to the west and east coast submarine cables. Costs and reliability are still to be determined for the longer term.
Internet
Experimentation (focussed around the University of Zambia, Unza, and the NGO community) had begun in Zambia by 1991 with dial-up store-and-forward email services, and shortly afterwards by conducting tests with low-earth orbiting satellite technology.
However, a significant step forward was made in 1993 when the Government liberalised the communications sector and allowed the formation of ISPs who could operate their own gateways. In 1994, following small grant funding from the World Bank, Unza spun-off the first ISP, ZamNet, as a campus company, 100% owned by the University. This became one of the first ISPs in Sub-Saharan Africa, outside South Africa, and allowed early development in the sector. Its leased line link to Cape Town soon proved too slow, and was replaced with early VSAT usage.
A range of ISPs emerged, largely based around dial-up (/WLL) technology, with WiFi technologies introduced in the late 1990s, and, in due course, WiMAX emerging in 2005 as a technology able to deliver broadband speeds and introduce 24/7 access. A healthy range of ISPs now exist, with a large number of dial-up and WiFi clients still in place, but being gradually replaced by WiMAX, GPRS, 3.5G, CDMA and alternative services. GPRS connectivity (at slow speeds in many cases) operates wherever there is mobile coverage. 3.5G/EDGE in Lusaka and the major Copperbelt towns; and WiMAX in all 9 Provincial capitals and other major towns. An increasing number of users gain their access to the Internet either via WiFi hotspots or Internet cafes.
The following table indicates growth in the Internet sector:
|
Year |
Subscribers |
Per 100 Inhabitants |
Annual Growth Rate (%) |
|
|
Dial up |
Broadband |
|||
|
2003 |
10,857 |
1,143 |
0.11 |
3 |
|
2004 |
15,334 |
954 |
0.15 |
36 |
|
2005 |
10,179 |
703 |
0.095 |
-33 |
|
2006 |
10, 067 |
1,929 |
0.104 |
10 |
|
2007 |
12,578 |
5,368 |
0.153 |
49.6 |
|
2008 |
12,586 |
5,703 |
0.152 |
1.9 |
However, reliable information on actual numbers of people using the Internet is hard to estimate, as in the above table one subscriber may be a dial-up user on a single PC (with a bandwidth of 14k) or may be a corporate entity with 200 computers scattered across 6 locations (with dedicated bandwidth to Europe of 2Mbps+). The Communications Authority estimate there to be around 750,000 people who use the Internet in some form.
Costs of operation of Internet services remains high, as all international traffic has had to be transited by satellite, with most ISPs paying upwards of $3,000 per simplex (one way) megabit per second per month for access to circuits to Europe. The cost of services, particularly broadband, is thus high, and last mile delivery cannot be via conventional ADSL style services due to the poor quality of the PSTN copper infrastructure, thus adding expensive wireless equipment costs to those of international bandwidth.
However, whilst there are many challenges, more of which are highlighted below, usage of the Internet is now becoming widespread in the country. The number of registered domain names is increasing rapidly, indicating a greater awareness of the need for an Internet ‘identity’ and a corresponding web presence in order to compete in an effective manner. With the coming of lower-cost bandwidth over the next few years, and with increased training, awareness and sensitisation, it is likely that the country will see the kinds of exponential growth seen elsewhere in the world and will be able to compete on a more level playing field with those elsewhere.
|
Year |
Bandwidth Usage |
|
|
|
Outgoing (Mbps) |
Incoming (Mbps) |
|
2004 |
8.76 |
20.316 |
|
2005 |
10.096 |
24.408 |
|
2006 |
34.79 |
79.884 |
|
2007 |
46.478 |
119.96 |
|
2008 |
48.834 |
197.523 |
The above figures do not take into account the number of direct VSAT links that provide the only form of Internet access, particularly in rural areas. There are significant numbers of both higher-bandwidth/mission-critical C-band and lower-cost Ku-band services being installed and operated in a range of facilities including schools, colleges, hospitals, NGOs, government offices, missions, tourist facilities, transport companies and others.
|
S/N |
Year |
No. of VSATs licensed |
|
1 |
2004 |
9 |
|
2. |
2005 |
24 |
|
3. |
2006 |
23 |
|
4. |
2007 |
103 |
|
5. |
2008 |
11 |
|
6. |
2009 |
24 |
Note that, because of the Government monopoly on international voice traffic, that ISPs are not allowed to transit VoIP or voice-based services, although an upcoming change in legislation is likely to transform this.
 |
Current WiMAX Coverage |
.
Matrix of Coverage for ISPs
Town |
Province |
UUNet |
AfriConnect |
Zamnet |
Quick Edge |
Zamtel Online |
Coppernet |
Realtime |
Microlink |
|
Lusaka (P) |
Lusaka |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
× |
x |
x |
|
Ndola (P) |
Copperbelt |
x |
x |
x |
|
x |
x |
x |
x |
|
Kitwe (D) |
Copperbelt |
|
x |
x |
|
x |
× |
|
x |
|
Kabwe (P) |
Central |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Livingstone (P) |
Southern |
x |
x |
x |
|
|
x |
x |
x |
|
Luanshya (D) |
Copperbelt |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
Chipata (P) |
Eastern |
x |
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
|
Lubwe (D) |
Luapula |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
Mongu (P) |
Western |
|
x |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
Mansa (P) |
Luapula |
|
x |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
Choma (D) |
Southern |
x |
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
|
Kafue (D) |
Lusaka |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
x |
|
Solwezi (P) |
N/Western |
x |
x |
x |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
Kasama (P) |
Northern |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mazabuka (D) |
Southern |
|
|
x |
|
|
x |
x |
|
|
Chingola (D) |
Copperbelt |
x |
|
|
|
|
|
|
x |
|
Mufulira (D) |
Copperbelt |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chililabombwe (D) |
Copperbelt |
x |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Namwala (D) |
Southern |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Key x ISP Present
P=Provincial Capital
D=District Capital
Backbone infrastructures
To date ISPs have used satellite connections as their only means of external communications. Because of the low-availability and high cost of quality terrestrial-based links within the country, even operations in POPs outside the capital have been provided over separate satellite links, and thus data traffic from one location to another has been via a double satellite hop transiting through Europe. The regulatory situation requires any company that transits the data of another provider to apply for a ‘carrier of carriers’ licence and this has held back the cellular providers from sharing their developing microwave backhaul systems. Whilst Zamtel does offer DSL links (in multiples of 64k) between major cities, these are expensive and offered without a service level agreement.
However, the incentive to reach the new fibre cables along the coasts of Africa, as well as to drive services to locations out of the capital, has seen some positive developments. The state-owned company that is the sole provider of electric power, ZESCO, has laid fibre optic cable along the earth wire of its pylon infrastructure on the main grid from Livingstone and Kariba, along the line of rail, and up to Solwezi and Lumwana in the Copperbelt. It now sells spare capacity on that link, and holds the appropriate licence. Most ISPs and cellular phone companies are now taking advantage of this facility, albeit that prices are still relatively high.
The current status of the network is as follows, noting the extension of the network to several border towns:
ZESCO are planning a second phase to the network, as follows, although no timescales are yet available:
In addition, Zamtel have now started laying fibre optic cables in underground trenches along their main routes, starting with those already covered by ZESCO and then reaching out to new areas and towards the borders.
Timescales for this project are:
In addition, Zamtel have laid a fibre optic metropolitan network around Lusaka, connecting up the main exchanges and offering last-mile fibre to larger scale clients who can afford the costs.
The Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) which serves electric power to the mines, also has its own fibre ring around the Copperbelt towns and mines.
The nationwide optic fibre investment by ZESCO and Zamtel are estimated at US$ 13 million and US$ 48 million respectively including local taxes. CEC’s optic fibre network is 540 kilometres in extent and the cost of installation of the network, including terminal nodes was US $ 9million.
Progress Timeline
|
Year |
Event |
|
1994 |
· Telecommunications Act: led to the increase of private participation and significant liberalization of the sector. · Internet introduced by ZamNet (owned by the University of Zambia) |
|
1995 |
Cellular telephony introduced by Zamtel |
|
1996 |
CopperNet start up |
|
1997 |
Internet launched by Zamtel |
|
1998 |
Zamcell receives mobile license |
|
1999 |
Telecel replace CDMA with GSM technology |
|
2000 |
Mobile subscriber base surpasses the number of fixed subscribers for the first time |
|
2001 |
Microlink and UUNet begin Internet services |
|
2002 |
Zamtel migrate to GSM technology |
|
2003 |
IBA Act; ZNBC Amendment Act |
|
2005 |
MTN acquires 100% of Telecel AfriConnect launch WiMAX Broadband Service |
|
2007 |
· National ICT Policy launched |
|
2008 |
· Celtel rebranded as Zain. Subscriber numbers exceed 2.5m |
|
2009 |
· ICT Bill launched · CAZ Universal Access Fund launched · First international fibre reaches Zambia · WiMAX reaches the 9 Provincial capitals |
Radio and Television
Broadcasting in Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) started as far back as 1941 and took various forms until an autonomous body was formed in 1988 when the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) came into being. It remains the official broadcasting organ of government and it operates both radio and TV services.
Radio services are provided through Shortwave and FM transmissions. Currently, FM transmissions only cover the Line of Rail and some Provincial Centres. ZNBC has three Radio Channels namely Radio 1 (broadcast in 7 vernacular languages, offering news, entertainment and education 19 hours a day), Radio 2 (an English language version of Radio 1) and Radio 4 (an English language station offering music and advertising 24 hours a day). ZNBC has 1 shortwave transmitter and 10 FM transmitters each (co-located) for radios 1 and 2 nationwide, and 4 FM transmitters for Radio 4. Radio 4 is listened to by 36% of the adult population; Radio 2 by 49%; and Radio 1 by 29%.
Until 1993 there remained only one national broadcaster. Once liberalisation occurred in that year private operators began to appear, particular in larger urban areas. By 2008 there were 48 radio stations countrywide and 5 TV stations.
ZNBC has one TV channel. Until 2006 this was only receivable in the main provincial centres, as distribution was solely dependent on Zamtel’s Terrestrial Microwave Network. However, in 2005 ZNBC entered into a partnership with Multichoice Zambia. The ZNBC/Multichoice partnership made provision for ZNBC TV signal to be part of the DSTV bouquet, thus allowing ZNBC to be received via the standard consumer satellite dish throughout the country, including in deep rural areas – or at least by those that had both the necessary electric power supply and the necessary funds.
Following the ZNBC/Multichoice agreement, ZNBC has also been able to expand terrestrial TV services to the rural parts of the country through the government-funded Rural TV Project, designed to allow more people access to television, considered to be critical for further education. ZNBC receives the television signal via satellite in a number of rural districts and retransmits terrestrially via a local TV transmitter. ZNBC now has a total of 63 television transmitter relays (up from 12 in 2004), spread around the country as shown in below. 65% of Zambians watch ZNBC TV. This growth to the rural areas has coincided with the comparable growth in GSM coverage, and thus created new interactions and much broader communications for the populations concerned.
In late 2009 ZNBC plan to launch a second national TV channel. By 2014 all broadcasting is due to be converted from analogue to digital, which will be a major challenge.
DSTV (Digital Satellite TV), operated out of South Africa, is available on Ku-band throughout the country. There are some free-to-air channels, with the only cost being the capital equipment. Multichoice has some 45,000 customers countrywide for their pay-TV service, with the cost being up to $65 per month if all bundles are taken.
