I am almost tempted to connect the damn wire myself. I have a boat load of CAT5 + with the old cable still lying in the park, I could just have it lying on the ground next to the wall along the park side.
OMFG what is wrong with the country that I am actually contemplating doing this!!!!
After nearly a year of no assistance from Telkom after my own cables got stolen, out of sheer desperation and helplessness (anyone who's been through this will know what I'm talking about), that is exactly what I eventually resorted to doing myself - putting the limited electronics knowledge I have to fruitful use (I do on average about 20-50 GB a month, and the only other options I had were iBurst and 3G as WiMax was not available -- 50GB on either of those would cost a FORTUNE - clearly I needed DSL, especially since I'm an FPS gamer who also needs low latency).
Ideally you want to provide the CAT5 to a Telkom technician who will do the wiring for you (many guys have succeeded in bribing them to do this, but I don't endorse that methodology). From what I've seen, Telkom generally welcome this methodology (You provide them the wire - they'll wire it up for you - but it must specifically be Telco wire or something superior, such as Ethernet wire). If that fails (as it did for me initially), this is what I did which worked:
The severed Telkom cable is probably either a 20-core or 50-core telco wire, meaning it has that many multicolour scooby-wire copper strands inside the black outer sheath.. all you need to do is strip some of that outer sheath off on Telkom's end of the missing cable (the other side goes to your premesis), and then find YOUR pair within that mess (obviously you won't be disrupting anyone else's service because all those lines are affected by the theft)...
To do that (some basic phreaking knowledge applies here), you need to
make your own 'lineman's handset': (sounds more complicated than it is, read on...) simply cut off one end (one of the RJ11 jacks) from an ordinary telephone cable like the ones which connect any phone to the wall socket in your house, and attach crocodile clips to each of the two strands - then plug the other side into an ordinary telephone.
Now test each copper pair on that line which runs to the exchange, until you find your own line (if your crocodile clips are fairly sharp, you don't need to strip each wire, just press it through the insulation - this will make the clean-up process easier too) -- once you've got a single dial-tone, then to find out whether it's your line or not is not complicated either: using your makeshift 'lineman's handset', simply dial your OWN landline number (the one that's been affected by the theft -- you don't want to incur call charges on anyone's account). If its engaged, you know you've got your own line. If you hear a woman voice message saying something about call back later, or if you hear signs of a crossed line, then you need to keep searching through the wires until you find your line - it must be a PURE engaged tone. If you do hear an engaged tone, but it's crossed with interference, then you've got at least one of the two wires right... keep going - once you're certain that you have your own pair, wire it up. If your new cable which you're connecting has twisted pairs (like all cat5/6 does), then be sure to use one of those twisted pairs as this helps alleviate noise which is important for DSL. Make sure you do a good insulation job on the joint, and try keep the new stretch of line line to your premises neat - trench it or put it high up on the pole where it belongs. To confirm that it's your line 100%, just dial 101999 for the automated voice to confirm
The voltage on those lines is basically the same thing as what it would be at the jacks inside your home - all you're doing by replacing the stolen cable is re-establishing that severed link. Ring voltage can give a bit of a shock, but you shouldn't have to worry about that if you're using crocodile clips (and some gloves might be a good idea too). Make sure that you don't short circuit any wires, and that any exposed copper when you're done is then cut off so it can't cause any problems (for Telkom). My theory was that the neater I could make it, and the least (read: none) I could affect anything else besides my own portion of the line, the less of a case Telkom would have against me if they decided to pursue some kind of legal action against me. Thankfully they never did (rightfully so, they got resumed payment for a line I fixed for them)
If the line you're attaching is longer than about 20-50 meters, you're asking for trouble - inductance from lightning and stuff could cause a problem because your new line is not properly earthed... so in that case you'd better trench it or you could get into more serious trouble from Telkom if they were to follow up.
I know that in general, this is completely illegal to do (so don't blame me if you decide to do it and get caught), but ask yourself: is it legal how Telkom leaves us without a phone indefinitely if we're paying for that service? What if there's an emergency call which needs to be made? Their lack of service (more likely a "we don't know when we will replace your cable" response) at our loss/expense (which could be years without service, literally) clearly justifies intervention. Just make sure you PAY YOUR BILL. The line might be listed under BULK FAULTS, so then proceeding to use it may cause account problems and other follow-ups from Telkom.
Fortunately I got a bit lucky in the long run - my homemade job died, and rather than going out and fixing it again, I managed to get a proper 'temporary service' installed to my premises after escalating (read: pleading and crying) endlessly as well - it's a pity we have to fight so hard just to have a phone line - it's not like we don't pay for it anyway. The guys who came to survey for the temporary line asked me "where did this cable come from"... I quickly changed the subject and fortunately they weren't fussed about it and ultimately helped me out... now I'm dreading the future if this temp line dies on me (it's just a 4-core type, and stretches about 60 meters from pole to pole -- so the tension is bound to give in, sometime in the future), that would surely become another nightmare, literally.
