Lowvelder: contract dispute leads to dropped cellphone signal

This comes after MTN decided to no longer use a cellphone tower that it shared with Vodacom in terms of an agreement between the two companies.

Vodacom has failed to communicate this to its customers for three weeks, resulting in a flood of complaints from unhappy customers to Lowvelder. According to Vodacom, consumers can expect services to be partially restored by the middle of next week.

Louisa van Wyk, Vodacom executive head for Mpumalanga, confirmed that “MTN has opted to no longer use the tower and that has affected Vodacom’s sharing agreement”.

The tower in question is the Valencia tower, situated in Steiltes. It provides coverage to Matumi estate and the surrounding areas.

“Vodacom wishes to apologise for the loss of coverage,” said Zakhele Jiyane, the service provider’s managing executive of Mpumalanga.

“The incident has to do with a contractual dispute between MTN and the landlord. We are working around the clock to find a permanent solution to this challenge.”

Residents are complaining that they are losing income and also voiced security concerns.

Dr Attie van Wyk confirmed that Matumi Golf Estate, where he resides, is “greatly affected and security severely compromised”. He added that the Busamed Hospital has also been affected.

Jörn Goldenbogen, owner of a guest house in the area, said he has had no Vodacom signal for more than a month. “I can’t even do any bank payments, as I do not receive OTPs on my cellphone due to no reception. I’m obliged to drive to town to find a connection, and I have to run my business from my car!”

Jiyane explained that Vodacom was informed by MTN to remove the base station equipment on October 30, citing their inability to reach an agreement on the lease renewal.

“The effective notice period was 20 days. Normally, the notice period to remove equipment is 90 days. Subsequent to this, the tower owner arrived on site on October 30 to remove the equipment. This gave us little time to notify our customers about the site deactivation.”

However, customers claim they were not informed at all.

Jiyane said it is their firm belief that the sharing agreement notice period had been violated, and therefore they were not willing to move their equipment.

“However, because the electrical supply was cascading from the tower owner, when they switched off their site, Vodacom’s site was also switched off. Crucially, in the removal of their equipment, the tower owner damaged Vodacom’s equipment, impacting the possibility of a speedy reactivation.”

Jiyane explained that due to the short notice and the difficulty in obtaining suitable locations for alternatives, it has proved difficult to address the coverage loss without adversely affecting Vodacom customers in the short term.

As an interim measure, the technology team has considered four locations to mitigate the impact. Of these, only one has had a willing landlord and is technically viable at Matumi.

“Weather allowing, we intend to activate the site by mid-next week to partially restore services.”
MTN could not be reached for comment.