The impact of the rampant theft of batteries from the country’s largest cellular network operators is bad news for consumers, an economist has said.
In KwaZulu-Natal, MTN SA and Vodacom have invested heavily in adding batteries and security solutions to ensure that the network stays operational during power failures as criminals continue to target network infrastructure.
MTN SA, responding to questions from “The Mercury”, said that 10 000 batteries had been installed over the past financial year with just more than 1400 stolen over the period.
MTN SA said although the incidents of battery theft and network infrastructure vandalism was still a reality, there has been a decline in these incidents.
“This decline could be the result of various security measures introduced over the past years, these include installation of high-tech solutions and on-the-ground strategies to prevent battery theft and vandalism at cell tower base stations.
“Additional measures include installing CCTV, cementing/hardening our battery storage and introduction of cement and heavy steel safehouse carriages.”
While MTN SA has not had to decommission any sites, last week “The Mercury” reported that Vodacom temporarily decommissioned 32 sites in the province as a result of theft and vandalism.
Vodacom said each site or cell tower costs R1 million and utilises four batteries valued at R45 000 each. This means that R32m worth of investment is “just lying around doing nothing”.
“Out of the 1186 batteries that went into the network, 1125 were stolen.
That effectively means we only installed 61 batteries,” said Molefe Mahlangu, Vodacom’s executive of operations, adding that this only equates to the installation of 15 sites in the last financial year.
Professor Irrshad Kaseeram, of the University of Zululand’s economics department, said the replacement costs of theft of such batteries is passed on entirely to consumers because the country cannot do without digital technologies in the modern era.
He said the fact that South Africa only has a few providers in the sector further exacerbates the situation because competition is low and transaction costs are raised.
Kaseeram said while consumers have become accustomed to such criminal activities, foreign investors see the situation as unfavourable.
As a result, South Africa will not be able to attract sufficient scarce foreign investment which the country desperately needs, he said.
“It is understandable that such criminal activities will be rife given our low growth and high unemployment rates.
The Government of National Unity (GNU) has to do much to sanction the criminals and implement sustainable solutions to growth and unemployment,” said Kaseeram.
Associate research director at the International Data Corporation (IDC) sub-Saharan Africa, Jonathan Tullett, said this was a very digital era and “everything we do is heavily dependent on digital services and connectivity’’.
“A lot of what we do every day really hinges on mobile connectivity, specifically, and when that goes away, it’s a significant quality of life impact, but it’s also much more than that. People rely on connectivity, for safety and security and for their professional lives,” he said.
Tullett said every aspect of life is impacted, and when connectivity goes away, there is significant degradation in what one can do and that is a real problem.
He said even though there is no load shedding right now, this has been an acute problem throughout load shedding.
“Things are nominally better now for the first half of 2024 but that’s not a guarantee that it will continue. Load shedding may return,” he said.
Tullett said there’s a very healthy aftermarket and black market for stolen batteries.
“This is a very challenging operating environment for operators where the cost of providing the basic connectivity service we need is higher than it should be.
“Those costs are always going to be passed on to consumers. And so we see comparatively high prices for voice and data services as a result,” he said.
He said policy changes could help to clamp down on the black market for these technologies in the same way the country has policies that make it less attractive to steal copper.
The Mercury