Bromhof hit by cable theft
Telkom's customers in Bromhof, Johannesburg, and surrounding areas have become the latest victims of cable theft which has led to the disruption of services of over 2000 corporate and residential customers.
On Sunday, 13 May, cable thieves broke through a concrete manhole roof and locked covering to steal Telkom's underground cable infrastructure. Telkom has reported the crime and a police investigation is currently underway.
The following suburbs in the Bromhof area with the exchange code 791, have been affected by this theft: Fontainebleau; Rand Park; Rand Park extension 2; Rand Park extension 3; Rand Park extension 10; Robindale; Robindale Hills; Malanshof; Malanshof extension 5.
"We apologise to our customers who have been affected by this crime. Telkom has commenced the restoration process and we will work around the clock to restore these services. The services will be restored progressively until the end of the week," explains Theo Hess, Telkom Managing Executive for Network Field Services.
"Telkom and its customers are heavily impacted by the deliberate cycle of cable theft. This is damaging businesses, depriving our customers of a basic service and, in some cases, adversely affecting their security. Of course this is affecting our capacity to deliver services within acceptable time intervals," he adds.
In our efforts to counter the scourge of copper cable theft, explains Hess, 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.
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.
Affected customers do qualify for pro-rata rebates on their line rentals. Currently customers are advised to call our Billing Enquiries Service on 10210 to enquire about such rebates for the period during which their lines were non-functional. Ordinarily, once an account of a service is linked to a bulk-fault, the credit is automatically passed to the customer.
For further enquiries, please contact:
PYNEE CHETTY
Senior Specialist: Media Relations
Tel.: (012) 311-5247
Cell: 081 389 7874
Email: chettpr2@telkom.co.za
or
LEIGH-ANN FRANCIS
Specialist: Media Relations
Tel.: (012) 311-7114
Cell: 081 391 4780
Email: francilm@telkom.co.za
About Telkom
Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa and on the African continent. We had consolidated normalised operating revenue from continuing operations of R33.4 billion and normalised profit for the year from continuing operations of R2.4 billion for the year ended 31 March 2011. Total assets from continuing operations amounted to R54.3 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R29.6 billion as of 31 March 2011. The group generated normalised free cash flow of R3.5 billion for the year ended 31 March 2011.
We had consolidated operating revenue from continuing operations of R16.4 billion and profit for the period from continuing operations of R502 million for the six months ended 30 September 2011. Total assets amounted to R52.4 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R29.1 billion as of 30 September 2011. The group generated free cash flow of R1.5 billion for the six months ended 30 September 2011.
As of 30 September 2011, we had approximately 4.1 million telephone access lines in service and 99.9% of our telephone access lines were connected to digital exchanges. We offer business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:
- fixed-line subscription and connection services to post-paid, prepaid and private payphone customers using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of the subscription based value-added voice services and customer premises equipment rental and sales;
- fixed-line traffic services to post-paid, prepaid, and payphone customers, including local, long distance, fixed-to-mobile, international outgoing and international voice-over-internet protocol traffic services;
- interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
- fixed-line data centre operations and internet services,including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and internet access and related information technology services;
- e-commerce, including internet access service provider, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
- W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
- mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through its mobile brand called 8•ta; and
- other services including directory services, through Trudon (Proprietary) Limited, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Proprietary) Limited and internet services outside South Africa, through iWayAfrica Group (integration of Africa Online Limited and MWEB Africa Limited).