Easy telecoms solution to cable theft downtime

South African business owners suffer from a great deal of downtime due to cable theft. In 2009, the Mail & Guardian reported that cable theft cost Telkom alone R3 billion per year.

While the direct cost to individual businesses is hard to ascertain, the negative impact of broken phone lines is undeniable. Whether it's the loss of the Internet or the inability to make a simple phone call, cable theft can be a business killer.

Telecoms specialist SS Telecoms has developed an innovative and cost-effective solution to the problem in the form of the SS-10 3G. The SS-10 3G is a small box that connects a single analogue phone, or a complete analogue phone system such as a PABX, to a 3G network. Its simplicity doesn't diminish its importance, however. Thanks to the SS-10 3G, which is approved by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), local business owners can take action in a matter of minutes and side-step the dreaded downtime.

“The process is no more or less difficult than setting up a cell connection,” says Kevin Greig, SS Telecoms Sales and Marketing Manager. “Once all the wires are plugged into the box, the user just needs to run the software supplied on the CD to set up the user interface. All in all, it takes a matter of minutes to get the phone system running again.”

While resolving the downtime caused by cable theft is a key business benefit, the SS-10 3G has other important applications for companies operating outside of urban centres. In those regions still not serviced by Telkom, the box is a lifesaver, offering coverage and PABX functionality for business otherwise excluded from the basic telecommunications systems the rest of the country take for granted. The SS-10 3G also offers a crucial antidote to congested GSM networks when network coverage is sluggish or non-existent.

“3G is less congested in high population areas than GSM,” adds Greig, “so a lot of business owners use the SS-10 3G to gain coverage when they are battling with GSM access. The box also comes in very handy as a fail-over in the case of complete network failures.”