MACRA yatilowetsa njoka nkabudura The recent Blackberry subscription fee hike has been met with mixed reactions from users. Our regular outspoken social commentator Felix Unyolo gives his views on the issue. Asusual, his views DO NOT represent those of Malawi24 as he writes in his personal capacity as a citizen of Malawi. Kodi okondedwa anu aja atakuikani njoka (Blackmamba) mu kabudula wanu wankati mungaganize bwanji? Thats a question I was asked at some point the time I came back home (Malawi) from USA. I must admit, this was more of a casual talk but the question still comes back to memory especially when people I look up to let me down. I know everyone is busy blaming and castigating Airtel Malawi for being too expensive on data services. Personally, I think the blame should go to Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) for letting us down. Let me make it clear that am neither supporting nor opposing this snake in underwear development and my views will simply give a general picture of the issue at hand. As a body that has powers to regulate our mobile operators, Macra turns a blind eye to the cries of people and instead, show their colours when it comes to shutting down radio stations deemed critical of government (am sure they have their paper term they use). For starters, Airtel and TNM have not been loyal to affairs of their customers. That is why they can send you their useless promotion texts and even call you at night Disturbing your baby making process just to inform you that you can get Zodiak news updates by sending such-such message to such-such number. What disturbs me is the fact that they never tell you how much the sms will cost and when you try once, you open doors to win this and win that sms promotions. In the end, they would say top prize for a particular promotion is 50 milion, yet they end up making over 100 million. There are times when you wake up in the morning and realize that all your credit is gone, you call customer care, it takes hours for your call to be connected and they will only tell you or remind you that you did not buy an internet bundle so you were on what they call Pay as you Go. Downloading a 2mb file from Phonerotica takes ages and worse for Malawi-Music. All these problems would go in an instant if Macra took a step, but scones are too much in their mouths. Indeed, its same Macra that has turned down proposals for mobile services by South Africas MTN and Cell C because of red and green scones delivered on their door steps every monthend. Macra ndichifukwa chani mwalora njoka zimenezi kulowa nkabudura mwa a Malawi nkumaluma chilichonse chofufuma ndicholowa nkati mosayangana mnofu? Malawi needs you to take actions and if you cant make any more decisions for companies you manage then bring more mobile service providers. Mr Andrew Kumbatira kulikuluko Malawi akulira kuno. I remain Felix Unyolo on behalf of Malawians. Feedback: unyolof@gmail
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 17:35:34 +0000