Vandalism disrupts TelOne network

STATE-owned fixed telephone service provider TelOne has bemoaned vandalism of its infrastructure by copper cable thieves which is disrupting operations.

Addressing guests at the unveiling of the entity’s new retail outlet in Hillside, Harare, and the launch of its United States dollar bundle packages yesterday, TelOne managing director Chipo Mtasa expressed concern over the adverse impact of vandalism on its network.

“Unfortunately, our copper network is now lagging behind in terms of experience and we own up to that,” she said.

“There are two reasons why the copper network is no longer that good. One reason is that there is a lot of network vandalism.

“People are going around stealing our cables. Literally everyday we wake up and we hear that there has been one kilometre of cables that has been stolen in each and every area. ”

Mtasa said the copper technology TelOne was using did not have adequate bandwidth capacity demanded by its growing clientele.

“We are committed to bringing in either optic fibre technology or wireless technology that they call LTE or long-term evolution.

“That is what we are working on. We are not promising to bring it today because we do not have the money yet,” she said.-newsday