Major resistance against fibre installation
After concerns were raised about fibre installations at a Rant-en-Dal community meeting, another meeting has been scheduled for 4 February. Resident for and against the project are asked to attend and vote on the matter.
When internet service provider Evotel recently started fibre installations in Rant-en-Dal, some members of the community were not impressed. The outcry was so loud that the ward councillors felt obliged to hold a community meeting to address the concerns.
After introductory statements by councillors Aletta van Loggerenberg and Jacques Hoon, and an Evotel representative at the 28 January community meeting, the residents had the opportunity to raise their concerns. The sentiments expressed were predominantly negative, and repeated frequently.
When asked why trenching wasn’t considered, Evotel explained that this method has its own issues, among them the higher cost of digging up and restoring sidewalks and roads. The representative also said it would take close to a year to trench, instead of just a few months to install overhead cables. More labourers would have to be employed, raising fears of increased criminal activity. Repair time would also be problematic. It would take more than five days for Evotel to get permission from the municipality to dig up and repair the cabling every time there was a problem. By contrast, aerial installations can be repaired within hours. In addition, every time the municipality needs to dig up water or electrical lines, there would be a risk of damage to the cables.
Evotel also noted that it had council permission to use as many of the existing municipal poles as possible, thus decreasing the number of new poles.
Evotel workers busy installing fibre poles.
In response to why poles weren’t placed inside residents’ premises, it was noted that the company would have to get permission from every homeowner with the affected poles on their premises to gain entry to do repairs, which would be extremely difficult and result in longer downtimes. Residents, however, said that everyone knows everyone else in the area and access would be easy.
It was also noted that during the three previous meetings residents were asked whether they had any objections to the installation, but very few people responded.
Evotel had since sent out a letter to the more than 500 residents of the area who had said they wanted fibre, detailing both the problems and the community’s grievances.
Evotel CEO, Albert Oostuysen said, “We have since had an influx of calls from other residents stating that they don’t agree with the outcome of the meeting and that we must continue. We are now trying to establish whether the residents of Rant-en-Dal area want aerial fibre, or no fibre at all.”
Another community meeting about the issue will be held on 4 February at 6.30pm at the NG Kerk Krugersdorp-Noord on Viljoen Street.
During the meeting a few random community members will be chosen from the floor to represent the residents. Letters will be sent out to those who cannot attend, and a follow-up meeting will be scheduled for a few weeks later to vote on the issue.
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