Thursday, 8th August, 2011
Picture Caption: : One of Telikom PNG’s main copper cables that were vandalized on Monday night at Garden Hills along the Central Waigan Drive in Port Moresby.
VANDALS ATTACK AGAIN AT TELIKOM CABLES IN PORT MORESBY
Major cable cuts affect more than 2,000 customers in Port Moresby
More than 2,000 customers from residential areas and business houses along Waigani Drive and Gordons are without vital communication services as of Monday night due to another vandalism of Telikom PNG’s vital telecommunication cables.
As a result of this, voice and data communication services to these areas have been disrupted until Telikom fixes the damage by replacing the expensive cables cut and stolen. This process takes about a week but depends on the extent of the damage and Telikom staff had been working around the clock since this morning to resolve the issue.
Two main cables containing 1800 pairs of copper cables each were cut; one servicing more than 1000 and the other more than 900 clients.
This is the major cable cut to be done to the nationally-owned company so far and is estimated to cost the company between K100, 000 to K500, 000 in the cost of repair which does not include the loss of revenue from Telikom during now until the date the issue is rectified. . The main areas affected include business houses along the Waigani Drive which are the Vulupindi Haus, Holiday Inn, Islander Village, Heritage Haus, National AIDS, Lamana Hotel, Aopi Haus, May Bank and Mutual Rumana. Others include the Gordons Industrial area and Gabaka St area, Stop N Shop, Paradise Foods, Daltron, ANZ Waigani, Datec Building, Boroko Motors, CPL Hardware area.
Telikom PNG CEO, Peter Loko made an appeal to the general public to stop the vandalism on vital telephone cable lines around the country as they are important for the constant flow of vital communication services to both residents and business houses. He said:
“Our telephone cables are very expensive and vital to maintain communication for everyone around the country. Vandalism of such company properties by a small group of people affects a lot of innocent customers, business houses, and public institutions by depriving them from receiving a daily vital service. Help us help you by reporting vandalism on cables today.”
This is the third such occurrence in Waigani within the past three months for Telikom cables to be sabotaged. Telikom PNG is therefore urging nationalistic public to report any sighting of such criminal activity to the police or Telikom internal security on 3005802 or 3004024 as these cables are part of our national telecommunications infrastructure. The public can also call the Customer Care Data Faults hotline on 1514.Telikom Customer Care services are available 24/7 on the new hotline 3456789.
Restoration works have commenced and full restoration of the telephone and data services in these affected areas is aimed to be achieved by next week due to the extensive nature of the damage. Meanwhile, the police are also investigating into this. Telikom PNG sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience caused.