State-owned telecommunications company, TelOne, says an increase in cases of network theft and vandalism is threatening its operations.
TelOne head of corporate communications, Melody Harry said in 2022, network vandalism incidents rose by 20.7% compared to the prior year and this cost the company more than US$500 000. Said Harry:
The business is also under threat due to network theft and vandalism, especially on the copper network, with at least US$510,000 being recorded in lost revenue and network elements for the period ending 31 December 2022.
These losses stemmed from 402 network vandalism incidents being recorded during the year translating to a 20.7 percent increase compared to the prior year.
A total of 51 500 clients were affected by vandalism-induced downtime in 2022, amounting to a 30 percent increase from 39 965 clients that were affected in 2021.
Resultantly, the need to replace the copper network with optic fibre and wireless solutions has become more urgent as these solutions are not only less susceptible to vandalism but also significantly improve the quality of experience.
To this end, funding options continue to be pursued for the phased replacement of the copper network.
She said that despite the challenges in the operating environment, TelOne managed to post an inflation-adjusted operating profit of ZWL$7.1 billion up from the ZWL$4.3 billion achieved in the previous year.
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