Telkom’s network hit by 6,000 incidents of cable theft in a year

Telkom is upping its efforts to migrate customers to wireless and fibre technologies to deal with cable theft syndicates.

It said cable thieves have become more sophisticated, and the operator experienced over 6,000 incidents of theft across its copper network in the past year.

“These criminals now target our manholes armed with customised heavy-duty vehicles, allowing them to hitch the cable to the vehicle and drive out kilometres of cable, cutting off thousands of customers in a single incident,” said Telkom’s group executive for communication, Jacqui O’Sullivan.

O’Sullivan said Telkom faces many challenges when it comes to copper cable theft, such as gang violence in the Western Cape which makes it dangerous for them to send technicians to an area.

“In many high-theft areas, cable is repeatedly stolen, sometimes within days after replacements or repairs.”

During the 2015 financial year, Telkom experienced over R200 million in losses from cable theft – R100 million in direct cable theft repair costs and R107 million spent on security services.

Fighting cable theft

To fight cable theft, Telkom is migrating customers in copper-theft hotspots onto new technology.

Telkom said it has migrated close to 4,000 customers to an alternative wireless product, known as Waya Waya, which does not rely on a copper network.

The new product lets subscribers keep their landline number and includes SMS functionality and a free device.

Telkom has also launched a fibre trial in which DSL customers are given the opportunity to upgrade their copper-based services to fibre for free.

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