Three Pretoria suburbs were left without telephone services yesterday due to copper theft.
According to Telkom, customers in Danville, Elandspoort and Phillip Nel Park will experience service disruptions for the rest of the work week, due to an incident of copper theft at one of the telco's exchanges in the area.
While about 650 residential and business customers (exchange code 238) are affected, Telkom says no hospitals or other essential services were affected.
Theo Hess, managing executive for network field services, says Telkom has deployed "several teams to work around the clock" to restore services as soon as possible. "We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our customers by this crime."
Telkom has hauled the new cable in and the services will be restored progressively until close of business on Friday, says the company.
Hess says, in Telkom's ongoing efforts to counter the scourge of copper cable theft, it has adopted various interventions, including employment of armed security firms, wireless alternatives to copper, and burying vulnerable aerial cable routes where possible.
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