TelOne loses $50m in Copper Cable Theft

Fixed phone operator TelOne has lost over $50 million in revenue due to theft and vandalism of copper cables.

The vandalism has hit hard on the Telcoms operations affecting voice and broadband services.

This comes at a time when Telone is trying to maintain its fixed mobile phone operations while battling against emerging technologies.

TelOne Managing Director Mrs Chipo Mtasa said copper cables’ theft have caused provision of poor service by the company, with more than 50 000 subscribers having been affected this year.

“Network vandalism has become rampant nationwide affecting TelOne’s service provision, especially for our voice and broadband services, which we call ADSL.”

” You find out that a lot of copper cables are being stolen and taken to the black market where they are sold. At dollar terms, more than $50 million has been lost this year due to copper cables vandalism and theft. As a result, more than 50 000 subscribers have been affected this year alone,” she said.

While land line usage has been on a downward spiral in the county , with the latest report recording a decline.

The Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe in its latest abridged sector performance report for the second Q of 2020 said, “ The total number of active fixed telephone lines declined by 0.2% to record 260,542 from 260,959 first quarter of 2020.”