[UgaBYTES] Cable vandalism may raise internet cost in East Africa

[Mwathi Francis]

Fibre optic cable carriers are incurring millions of shillings lately as
additional cost for security and monitoring off their lines as cases of
vandalism are worryingly on a rise in East Africa.



Industry insiders say cable vandalism is fast emerging as avenues of
unnecessary expenses and if this continues, operators may even be forced to
to pass on the additional costs to the consumers. Companies now have to
incur expenses in hiring guards to man the cables with some even being
forced to introduce monitoring units which includes vehicles on paths where
their cables lie.



Now the companies are preparing to move petitions to their respective
governments to hand down stiffer penalties to suspected vandals.

Service providers are also pointing fingers at each other, saying vandalism
on the fibre cable is a form of industrial sabotage, since the actual fibre
cable does not have a resale value.

Fibre optic cables allow for more services to be provided to end-users and
can carry more voice and data information than copper wiring but are made
from material that is almost valueless in black markets.


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Francis Mwathi
Support Community Facilitator
UgaBYTES Initiatives (www.ugabytes.org)
Telecentr.org (www.telecentrecommunity.ning.com)
Tel: +256 414 370163
Mob: +256 783 010269
Skype: francis.mwathi
E-Mail: mfrancis at ugabytes.org