from BAATSHEBA RAMASHALA in Polokwane
POLOKWANE – MTN South Africa is increasing battery and generator deployment in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces.
Allegedly stolen cell tower batteries found by the police. Photo supplied
The rollout is in the face of ongoing load-shedding and increasing theft of batteries from base stations.
In June and July, MTN reported a 24 percent average increase from the previous years on battery theft.
Mobile network operators across the country reported a 250 percent increase in loss of generators during Stage 6 load-shedding.
Kagiso Moncho, General Manager for MTN SA Northern Region (covering Limpopo and Mpumalanga), said even though South Africa is currently back on Stage 1 and 2, which helps with recharging the batteries that run the network towers, the issue of vandalism impacts network and service delivery.
“Load-shedding is now part of our daily lives, so we are driving the rollout of new solutions that better protect our equipment, while keeping us a step ahead of the criminals,” Moncho said.
The official said they were making good progress thanks to heightened security and alternative back-up measures.
While vandalism remained a major concern, Moncho said other challenges came from fibre breaks due to road projects, along with ongoing issues of batteries, generator and base station equipment theft.
“We’ve set up a national ‘war room’ to isolate and manage incidents and preserve battery backup,” the executive said.
MTN has hired additional temporary staff to assist with fault management, adopted a load-shedding contingency plan, implemented special network monitoring and hourly reporting processes.
“We continue to work fast to minimise the impact of load-shedding by deploying generators to keep critical hub sites up and to roll out batteries where needed to limit the damage and ensure our customers still get quality network coverage,” Moncho assured.
– CAJ News
