Fibre network operator Vumatel says its recent spate of network outages around the Johannesburg areas is as a result of multiple factors, including vandalism and load-shedding.
The Vodacom-controlled company admits it had experienced an increased number of unplanned and repetitive outages during the months of November and December around Gauteng, however it maintains that planned and unplanned outages at a national level have not escalated recently.
Downdetector, which helps users understand disruptions to vital services such as the internet and social media, shows a spike in Vumatel outages reported in the last 24 hours. The portal received 435 reports of outages from Vumatel users.
Dozens of Vumatel’s end-users took to Twitter, expressing their frustrations over the intermittent internet services.
In a Twitter update yesterday local ISP Afrihost informed users of Evotel and Vumatel network outages across Gauteng.
“Please note clients on the Evotel network (National) and Vumatel network (Gauteng) will experience no connectivity. Engineers are working on resolving this issue as soon as possible. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
This was followed by a backlash from customers who were angered by the lack of communication.
Replying to Afrihost, @KatlehoMo wrote: “I’m disappointed in how this was communicated. Next time consider sending texts to affected customers - if there’s no connectivity and customers can’t reach your support team nor access Twitter, how would they know this?”
There have been no updates from Afrihost since.
Responding to ITWeb’s questions, Dewald Booysen, COO at Vumatel says scheduled maintenance, network upgrade, vandalism, load shedding and outages due to third party providers also experiencing network-related issues, are some of the reasons the operator has been experiencing network outages.
“Recent Vuma outages relate to the following: scheduled maintenance and network upgrade activities which are communicated in advance to ISP’s; outages due to third party providers, for example, backhaul service providers; vandalism and theft-related outages on both ours and third-party service provider infrastructure.
“Due to the increased levels of scheduled load-shedding, there is an increase in the theft of electrical cables and associated infrastructure. These electrical cables are in close proximity to our fibre infrastructure, which is often damaged in the process of the theft of the electrical cables,” explains Booysen.
The company, according to Booysen is working hard to manage risks and resolve the issues, include those stemming from the various stakeholders.
In terms of Eskom-related outages, he adds: “Although our network has been designed with the required back-up power solutions, the strain on equipment due to potential power surges and unscheduled power outages places additional strain on infrastructure. We have implemented additional measures to mitigate this risk and are continually reviewing to ensure network is not affected by power outages.”
Community Investment Ventures Holdings is the holding company of a group of companies including Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel.
In November, Vodacom Group acquired a co-controlling equity stake in both Community Investment Ventures Holdings’ fibre assets.
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