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Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri told Mark Lowe of the Democratic Alliance that the cost of lost revenue in outgoing calls was R626m; to replace stolen cable cost R159m; the cost of security (armed response and transport) to protect the cable that is left was R119m; the cost of cable alarms was R44m; and the cost of a network protection service was R29m.
She told the DA's Dene Smuts in reply to a similar question that overhead cables have been replaced with underground routes. "This means that the overhead cables which were strung on poles are buried underground making it more difficult for the thieves to steal copper," the minister said.
She added that alternative technologies such as the very small aperture terminal which provides mobile satellite internet connections and EMGW, a wireless broadband system, have been deployed in areas such as Bapsfontein and Diepkloof in Gauteng, Grahamstown, Paterson in the southern region and many other exchange areas nationally.
"Telkom has internal staff proactively attending to copper theft i.e. serving on all copper theft forums, working with Business Against Crime as well as police forums and also working with recyclers and scrap yards to curb the selling of stolen Telkom copper cables," the minister told Smuts.
"Various processes and resources are also in place to protect other network elements such as optic network and Dect/solar. Telkom has further procured armed response security to protect and secure the access copper network."
She also told Lowe that Telkom is not in a position to calculate the revenue losses due to cable theft on incoming calls, and that the utility has stopped replacing stolen cables in cases where repeated theft took place.
- I-Net Bridge
