Telkom Cable Theft Solution

[CyberMatix]

We all know that Telkom has a problem with stolen cables. Well in my case it seems that they have come up with a novel way to solve the financial loss that, depending on where you read, is in the order of R1B per year. It's quite simple - just make the people without service due to cable theft keep on paying as before. After our cables in the Broederstroom area had been stolen for the umteenth time last November (2009), Telkom decided (without telling us) that they will not be replacing them. But we keep on getting our monthly invoices for "Service Rental". I have decided not to pay, and now I'm getting nasty little reminders that if I do not settle my outstanding amount (owed to Telkom), they will be taking "steps" against me. Can you believe this? I have made one attempt to call their so-called help line, but I spoke to a total idiot that I couldn't understand a single word he said due to his heavy accent and my hopeless MTN connection, and he didn't have a clue what I was on about. March On South Africa!

 

[Sting]

Contact 10210 and log a dispute. They must refund you for the entire period that you were without service.

 

[moklet]

Sitting with the same problem here telkom investigating why my line is non functional but they know the cables are stolen

 

[CyberMatix]

Contact 10210 and log a dispute. They must refund you for the entire period that you were without service.

Thanks, I'll do just that.

 

[Synaesthesia]

What bastards! A better solution would be - switch to fiber! I would be stunned if it wasn't Telkom's policy to swap out any copper cable that's stolen with fiber.

Then again, with fiber you need more infrastructure and optical/electronic switches at the endpoints. But ultimately it's the best.

 

[icyrus]

What bastards! A better solution would be - switch to fiber! I would be stunned if it wasn't Telkom's policy to swap out any copper cable that's stolen with fiber.

Then again, with fiber you need more infrastructure and optical/electronic switches at the endpoints. But ultimately it's the best.

It doesn't stop them from stealing it.

 

[Synaesthesia]

What can you do with a puny fibre cable? It's like a few cents worth of glass.

Oh well, I guess cable thieves are an ignorant lot so ...

 

[wootman]

I got the same problem, my lines been out for a month now. Telkom says it's due to the high theft in the area, so they stuck me with this overpriced pos W-CDMA 3G device as a temp measure till the line is fixed, heck knows how long that's gonna take. But I'm sure they working on it at the moment cause I see them everyday parked outside a man-hole right up the road where I lived...spending hours pulling stuff out and putting things in....so that's a good sign, just it's being done in Telkom time.

 

[aekritzinger]

What bastards! A better solution would be - switch to fiber! I would be stunned if it wasn't Telkom's policy to swap out any copper cable that's stolen with fiber.

Then again, with fiber you need more infrastructure and optical/electronic switches at the endpoints. But ultimately it's the best.

According to what was explained to me (with a pinch of salt of course) is that most exchanges are running fibre between exchanges, ie backbone to a certain extent. so copper is only used from the exchange into your house.

If Telkom spoke the truth when I called them then yes they are still stealing and sometimes getting expensive glass.

 

[aekritzinger]

For the people who's cabling has been stolen, how long on average does it take to get online.

My exchange was raped on the 6 March 2010 and today I'm still on my 3G (thank you work) but it is still damn limiting.

We finally thought the problem was fixed Thursday, 1 April 2010 but only then realised that the engineers crossed my line with another persons. Unfortunately this person does not have ADSL on his phone line. So now 2 days to go and a full month for Telkom to sort their issues out.

They will not receive any payment until this has been resolved.

 

[Sting]

According to what was explained to me (with a pinch of salt of course) is that most exchanges are running fibre between exchanges, ie backbone to a certain extent. so copper is only used from the exchange into your house.

If Telkom spoke the truth when I called them then yes they are still stealing and sometimes getting expensive glass.

All exchanges ARE connected via fibre. All cable connections from the exchange to the customer is via copper, except where the customer specifically wants a fibre solution and is willing to pay the associated costs (plenty!).

 

[whipper]

your solution would be WCDMA from telkom providing your exchange supports it...and its wireless so no more cable theft.

 

[d0b33]

yeah just switch to fiber, no copper-no theft.

 

[Sting]

yeah just switch to fiber, no copper-no theft.

They will still dig it up and damage it, thinking it is copper.

 

[d0b33]

They will still dig it up and damage it, thinking it is copper.

but if there is no copper left they'll get the idea that there is none to go after....

 

[Sting]

but if there is no copper left they'll get the idea that there is none to go after....

What you propose will lead to what happens when Telkom deploy wireless systems in high cable theft areas - the cable thieves move on to the next area.

 

[guest2013-1]

What you propose will lead to what happens when Telkom deploy wireless systems in high cable theft areas - the cable thieves move on to the next area.

Yes? And? That will just force Telkom to actually install fiber and not wireless everything (eventually, if they can see past their own narrow-minded approach to "telecommunications")

South Africa has this "wireless is the solution" thing in mind because of copper theft and the cost of cables etc, but if you consider the amount of money they spent replacing copper compared to what it would have cost just replacing everything with fiber and actually upgrading their networks (at some point in the 1990's we had the most advanced telecoms system in the world), they could have curbed all these morons stealing copper.

Also, wireless is NOT the solution to everything... and Telkom knows this all too well

 

[aekritzinger]

ugh, my cables got stolen again on Monday evening, at the stroke of midnight my DSL/phone line dead, urg, my line was down from 3 March -> 3 April this year already.

 

[J0n0]

A customer of ours had a whole suburb down due to cable theft, and the cable that was stolen was fibre. Not even copper.

 

[Tacet]

A customer of ours had a whole suburb down due to cable theft, and the cable that was stolen was fibre. Not even copper.

Fibre is stolen as well. The sheathing around the fibre contains kevlar, which is then resold (I've no idea who will buy it!!!?). So while replacing copper with fibre seems like a good idea it is unfortunately not very effective. The only coms cable that I know of that doesn't get stolen easily is Eskoms - they run it above their power lines - quite a hassle to actually survive to steal the comms cable. Mind you, their power cables are also being stolen.

Solution: throw copper thieves in jail, where they belong!