03 Sep 2020

Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL) official has pleaded with the public to help fight rising incidents of theft of cobber cables and damage to telecommunications infrastructure.

In an interview, BTCL corporate communications and public relations manager, Mr Golekanye Molapisi, made an appeal to Batswana to report any suspicious activity to law enforcement officers to help curb damage of its infrastructure and the theft of BTCL copper cables.

He said the recent damage and theft of BTCL copper cables in Gaborone (Block 7, 3, 5) Mogoditshane, Tsolamosese, and Phakalane, resulted in a service outages of fixed voice and internet services.

Mr Molapisi said the incidents were associated with scrap metal dealers who bought and sold stolen copper.

He said these acts of vandalism had affected BTCL’s mandate of offering reliable and efficient service to customers at all times especially during these trying times of COVID-19 pandemic.

“When copper cables are cut and stolen, the end result is service disruption and access to communication that could put lives at risk. Imagine if there is an accident and a customer cannot call an ambulance, phone the police or any other emergency service for assistance,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr Molapisi said these cable thefts resulted in Internet service outage which in turn affected customers’ access to e- services and the ability to transact either online or through the ATM denying customers an opportunity to buy or pay for services.

“In essence cable thefts negatively impacts businesses and their ability to provide service especially during these trying times of COVID-19,” he said.

Recently, BTCL, the leading telecommunications operator celebrating 40 years of progress announced that with the rising incidents of copper cables countrywide, persons accused of impairing, damaging and stealing telecommunications equipment could face long prison sentences and hefty fine if convicted under the Communications Regulatory Authority Act of 2012.  Ends