LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s leading smartphone network Airtel Malawi has announced plans to acquire additional capacity for its international data links and additional local fiber providers to address recent network challenges impacting voice and data services.
In a press statement issued on Friday, January 17, 2025 and signed by Airtel Malawi’s Acting Managing Director Abdul Shaik says the strategic move will mitigate interruptions from neighbouring countries like Mozambique and Zambia, and local fiber outages in Malawi.
“It is important to note that with Malawi being a landlocked country, data services are acquired from foreign service providers.
“During the festive season, our primary fiber link from Mozambique faced prolonged downtimes due to security challenges which impacted service restoration,” reads the statement in part.
Shaik explains, “Additionally, our backup links via Zambia were impacted by prolonged power outages which resulted in service degradation.
“Locally, persistent vandalism and road construction works led to multiple outages of fiber links resulting in intermittent data and voice services”.
He observes, “These challenges impacted our network services despite having the multiple layers of protection from the back-up fiber links”.
Shaik assures, “To mitigate such unforeseen circumstances and ensure quality service, we have added ESCOM as an additional local fiber service provider to provide further service protection on our major routes.
“Internationally, we are acquiring additional protection capacity on our fiber link from Tanzania. These initiatives will be completed by the end of January 2025 and a subsequent update will be shared on the same”.
He adds, “Currently, Airtel Malawi has multiple international data fiber links (main link from Mozambique and two back up links from Zambia), and two local fiber service providers”.
Abdul Shaik pledges, “Following recent service interruptions, we have taken the above enhancements which will make our network robust and reliable, ensuring improved voice and data experience for our customers.
“We remain committed to improving service quality and will continue engaging with our local and international fiber service providers for faster resolution and resilience measures”.