MP Chilenga plagued by ‘please call me’ SMS from Airtel Malawi: Dausi promises ‘comprehensive answer’

Member of Parliament (MP) for Chitipa South Werani Chilenga  told Minister of Information and Communications Technology Nicholas Dausi   in Parliament that he is getting plagued by  “please call me” SMS service from Airtel Malawi.

Chilenga told the Minister that he is irritated by the ‘please call me messages’ generated by Airtel due to network failure when the caller has actually never generated such messages.

“These messages are very embarrassing and inconveniencing” said Chilenga.

He asked the Minister to do something about it because he messages are continuing “and are causing real inconvenience.”

In his response, Dausi said he referred the matter to the phone network providers and Malawi Communications Regulatory Commission (Macra).

“If I can be allowed to come back, I will give a comprehensive technological answer because it borders on some high technology that does not need guess work,” said Dausi.

He asked Chilenga to bear with him to come back with” a comprehensive answer as to what happened to the please call me when indeed somebody has not done so.”

In the House, Members of Parliament (MPs), especially those from border districts, also raised concerns over how neighbouring countries’ mobile networks are interfering with local ones, causing communication challenges in the areas.

The MPs have since asked government to do something about this problem and to consider telling the mobile network providers to upgrade their towers to 4G network as most towers have 2G, which is slow and outdated.

Dedza West MP Filipo Chinkhondo (Malawi Congress Party-MCP) said there is too much interference from Mozambique’s  Mobicell in his constituency.

“Would the minister responsible consider doing something on this network interference? It is worrisome,” he said.

Zomba Thondwe MP Charles Tikhiwa (Democratic Progressive Party-DPP) decried the use of 2G towers, saying it is slowing down communication.

Dausi  conceded that Malawi has “ network interference” from neighbouring countries.

He said TNM and Airtel have promised “to improve as they are still carrying out network quality checks to rectify and improve the problems.”