Durban - The DA has raised concern about a looming mobile network blackout as load shedding is having a devastating impact on cell towers across South Africa.
This comes after Eskom implemented stage 6 load shedding on Sunday. It has since moved to stage 5.
DA MP and one of the party’s spokespersons on telecommunications and digital services, Tsholofelo Bodlani, said the party will be submitting Parliamentary questions to Communications and Digital Technologies Minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, on her plans regarding the devastating effect load shedding has on the stability of mobile network connections nationwide.
In a recent article, “Business Report” reported that mobile operator MTN South Africa was working around the clock to protect customers’ connectivity, with an aggressive roll-out of batteries, generators and alternate power supplies to mitigate the impact of load shedding.
According to the report, MTN reached out to small businesses to supply generators for its operations and upgraded its battery back-up solutions on over 80% of the sites already this year. It also deployed additional batteries.
MTN said it had also deployed over 2 000 generators to counter the impact of stage 4 (and higher) load shedding.
At the time of the report, MTN was using more than 400 000 litres of fuel a month to keep these generators operational.
Vodacom shared on its website the impact that protracted load shedding has on the network.
“A notable complication with Stage 4 load shedding (or higher) over consecutive days is that batteries don’t get enough time to recharge to full capacity. In addition to this, more areas are down at the same time which affects more sites and we therefore have increased challenges in getting to all of the sites,” said Vodacom.
Bodlani said mobile networks are incurring huge costs.
She said cell towers are either equipped with batteries and/or generators, meaning that, when load shedding occurs, a cell tower remains fully functional for as long as these batteries will last or the back-up generator keeps running.
“When these batteries are depleted, they require 12-18 hours to recharge, which makes it impossible to fully recharge, which inevitably leads to these batteries breaking over time,” said Bodlani.
As a result, she said, these businesses have to reinvest in the same line items, in order for them to keep services running for their customers.
“It is worrying that, when the power is fully depleted, these towers stop working entirely and may cause a network blackout in surrounding areas.
“The DA is extremely worried about this as it will inevitably leave our citizens vulnerable and with no ability to communicate, especially in case of emergencies,” she said.