Cable theft affects Telkom services

Customers with the exchange codes 613 and 623 in the Tulisapark, Electron, Steeldale and Elandspark suburbs are affected.

A total of 1597 residential, business and corporate customers are affected.

Theft of a major copper cable in the City Deep exchange area has resulted in the disruption of Telkom services.

During the early hours of 4 May 2013, cable thieves cut and stole three metres of 2400 pair main cable in a manhole on the corner of Heidelberg road and the N17. The thieves used an angle grinder to cut through a lockable manhole lid.

Customers with the exchange codes 613 and 623 in the Tulisapark, Electron, Steeldale and Elandspark suburbs are affected. This includes a total of 1597 residential, business and corporate customers.

Telkom has commenced with the restoration of the affected services and deployed several teams to expedite the repair process.

“The services will be progressively restored until Friday 10 May 2013. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this outage and assure customers that we are doing everything possible to curb any further cable theft in the area,” says Theo Hess, Telkom Managing Executive for Network Field Services.

“Telkom has reported the incident to the South African Police and Telkom’s internal security. The police have launched an investigation,” adds Mr Hess.

Copper cable theft remains a major inhibitor to Telkom’s capability to maintain and improve service levels. We appeal to customers in this area to be on high alert and to report any suspicious activity to Telkom’s 24 hour crime/fraud hotline number 0860 124 000.

In efforts to counter the scourge of copper cable theft nationally, Telkom has adopted various interventions, which include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Proactively alarming critical and sensitive cable routes and employing services of armed security firms.

• Deploying various wireless technologies that are alternatives to copper.

• Assessing vulnerable aerial cable routes and, where feasible, these are buried underground.

• Working closely with the Non-Ferrous Theft Combating Committee (NFTCC) under the auspices of Business against Crime and the South African Police Services, to jointly find ways      of protecting our cable network.

• Working closely with law enforcement agencies to implement and enforce the 2^nd hand goods bill.

• Implementing a national campaign to raise awareness of the Company’s toll-free crime-report line (0800124000) as the co-operation and support of all communities is vital in stamping out cable theft. All members of the public are urged to assist Telkom by making use of this number if they see any suspicious activities.