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19 April 2013

Cable theft causes major disruptions

Telkom services in the Hennopspark, Akasia and Rietvlei exchange areas were disrupted last night when cable thieves cut and removed several main cables.

The theft caused major service disruptions and customers with the exchange codes 653, 480 and 549 in the Chantelle extensions, Hartbeeshoek, Amandasig, Karenpark, Verresig, Mooikloof Ridge extensions, Rietvallei, Rooihuiskraal extensions and Wierda Glen suburbs are affected.

The total number of customers affected is 1523, with 1105 of those being residential lines, 255 business and 163 corporate.

Telkom has already commenced with the restoration of the affected services and has deployed several teams to expedite the repair process.

Telkom Managing Executive for Network Field Services Theo Hess says the services will be progressively restored until close of business on Friday 26 April 2013. "We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this outage and assure customers that we are doing all we can to curb any further cable theft in the area."

Telkom has reported the incidents to the South African Police and Telkom’s internal security, and the police have launched an investigation. Affected customers qualify for pro-rata rebates on their line rentals.

"Copper cable theft remains a major inhibitor to Telkom's capability to maintain and improve service levels. We appeal to customers in this area to be on high alert and to report any suspicious activity to the Telkom 24 hour crime/fraud hotline number 0860 124 000," says Mr Hess.

In Telkom’s ongoing efforts to counter the scourge of copper cable theft, explains Mr Hess, it has adopted various interventions, which include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Proactively alarming critical and sensitive cable routes and employing services of armed security firms.
  • Deploying various wireless technologies that are alternatives to copper.
  • Assessing vulnerable aerial cable routes and, where feasible, these are buried underground.
  • Working closely with the Non-Ferrous Theft Combating Committee (NFTCC) under the auspices of Business Against Crime and the South African Police Services, to jointly find ways of protecting our cable network.
  • Implementing a national campaign to raise awareness of the Company's toll-free crime-report line (0800124000) as the co-operation and support of all communities is vital in stamping out cable theft. All members of the public are urged to assist Telkom by making use of this number if they see any suspicious activities.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Pynee Chetty

Senior Specialist: Media Relations

Group Communication

Tel:+27 12 642 1716

Mobile: +27 81 389 7874

Email: chettpr2@telkom.co.za

OR

Leigh-Ann Francis

Specialist: Media Relations

Group Communication

Tel: +27 12 642 1728

Mobile: +27 81 391 4780

Email: francilm@telkom.co.za

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ABOUT TELKOM:

Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa. We had consolidated operating revenue of R16.8 billion and normalised profit after tax of R1, 683 million for the period ended 30 September 2015. Total assets amounted to R41.9 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R23.5 billion as of 30 September 2015. The group generated normalised free cash flow of R1.4 billion for the period ended 30 September 2015.

As of 30 September 2015, we had approximately 3.3 million telephone access lines in service and 1,030,441 ports connected via MSAN access. We offer business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:

  • fixed-line retail voice services using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of subscription based value-added voice services and calling plans;
  • fixed-line customer premises equipment rental and sales services both voice and data needs and these include PABX, Computers, Routers, Modems, Telephone handsets and other ancillary equipment;
  • interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
  • fixed-line data services, including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and internet access and related information technology services;
  • Data Centre Operations includes e-commerce, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
  • W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
  • mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through our mobile navbar-brand called Telkom Mobile;
  •  information and communication services including cloud services, infrastructure services, workspace services, global service integration management and hardware and network equipment sales locally, in seven African countries, the UK and Dubai through Business Connexion Group; and
  • other services including directory services, through Trudon (Pty) Ltd, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Pty) Ltd.

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