By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK
Telecom Namibia says tampering with the underground fibre optic cable between Gobabis and Witvlei caused a blackout in the telecommunications service to most of eastern Namibia recently.
Customers in the Gobabis, Buitepos, Talismanus, Epukiro and Otjinene areas experienced a telecommunications service disruption of more than 27 hours, with service restored on August 16 2007.
Telecom released a statement saying vandals severed the same fibre optic cable shortly after 15h40 – again causing damage resulting in telephone, Internet and data circuits going down.
The company says vandalism to the fibre optic cable caused disruptions to the network on the western edge of Gobabis, next to the main road to Witvlei.
In the first case, the culprits took the cable out of a manhole, and crushed it with an unknown object against a rock.
They merely cut off the temporary connection fibre with a sharp object in the other incident.
Telecom says similar acts of vandalism occurred on the overhead optic fibre route about five km south of Otjiwarongo on the road to Kalkfeld on June 6, 2007.
Culprits removed a pole, which damaged the fibre cable causing a service interruption of approximately five hours.
Again, on June 6, 2007 Telecom had to replace a 300-metre overhead cable after vandals cut off the cable at two places.
Telecom described it as a deliberate act of vandalism, causing a complete interruption in transmission to the North East and Far North areas of more than 10 hours.
“Even though everything is back to normal now, such mindless acts of vandalism by unknown miscreants cause major disruption to many businesses and home telephone lines.”
Since mid-March 2007, Telecom Namibia says, it has also fallen victim to the unscrupulous theft of solar panels, mainly in the Kunene Region towards the North and South of Opuwo.
“These deplorable acts caused small communities, mining operations as well as lodges and other players in the tourism industry, situated in these very remote rural areas, tremendous inconvenience as tele-phone services were disrupted for weeks on end.”
Solar panel theft also occurred on July 4 at a Telecom Namibia microwave transmission tower situated about 50 km east of Walvis Bay in the Namib-Nau-kluft Park, affecting telecommunications to the Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine.
The company says it encourages members of the public to immediately report theft, tampering or destruction of telecommunications equipment to Telecom Namibia or the nearest Police Station.
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