LILONGWE.

The Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) and the general public have voiced out their shock at the decision by Zain Malawi, one of Malawi’s only two mobile communication companies, to hike its rates by about 20%.

In a public announcement, Zain says its recharge vouchers of 25 – 2,000 units have jumped from MK35 to MK40 and MK2, 800 to MK3, 200 respectively with effect from 22nd February 2010.

“Why is ZAIN reacting to the US dollar every time? Why are they hyped by the dollar?” wondered CAMA executive director, John Kapito.

Often times Zain is continuously said to be ‘upgrading its services or ‘network’, giving customers a raw deal.

“Every time Zain has network problems. They sell a lot of cheap handsets to cloud their system and hence give us poor services. Why are they hiking their rates instead of improving their service delivery first,” said an angered mini-bus driver, Jacob Semu.

His sentiments are joined by the company’s customer base, most of who live below a dollar per day.

“I think this is too much. Whenever the dollar moves, service and product rates go up. When fuel prices sour, we are the ones they turn to in order to cushion their business interests. Yet our salaries and wages remain the same. What is wrong with this country,” expressed a touched customer, Faith Arietta.

The move is seen by many as a step in the wrong direction as Zain’s only main competitor, Tnm, has announced it will not change its rates. The third mobile communications company, G-Mobile, is yet to roll out its services and the telecommunications regulatory, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) body has given it until May 12 this year to get cracking.

The company has breached agreements with MACRA several times and will have its license revoked should it fail to roll out this time around.

Other people also expressed CAMA and other control bodies in the country are toothless watchdogs whose only achievement is to make noise and not lead the people into popular redress actions like picketing, boycotts, and even court intervention.

Analysts, however, believe the narrow base of competitors in the sector is heaping economic pressure on end-users where they have no fall-back options in mobile communications.