KwaZulu-Natal is experiencing torrential rains which have lead to flooding, death and destruction. Connected to this, service provider MTN has announced that it has experienced damage to its network and this may impact its services.
“The heavy rains in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has caused widespread infrastructure damage and power outages resulting in over 500 MTN sites down in the region. Due to the serious nature of the outages, MTN has activated contingency plans for site restoration, however, access to many of the impacted sites remains a major challenge,” a press release reads.
The press release goes on to explain that power outages caused by the floods can bring sites down. While these have batteries, the extended nature of the flooding means that these have been depleted. Flooding also means that MTN technicians can’t reach these areas to replace or recharge the batteries.
Batteries which keep network sites up when the power goes down can be a weak point in any network. Last year Telkom reported that 7 841 of these batteries had been lost due to theft or vandalism. While heavy rain and flooding are not the same problems as vandalism and theft, it highlights that cellular and internet networks can only function for so long when disconnected.
“The major areas impacted at this stage include Durban South, South Coast, Umlazi, Malagazi, Amanzimtoti, Ballito, Salt Rock amongst other areas. MTN’s wishes to assure impacted customers that our technicians are working around the clock to restore connectivity in their area,” the press release continues.
Jacqui O’Sullivan, MTN SA’s Executive for Corporate Affairs, also explains that restoring connectivity is a priority for the network and that MTN is “deploying all possible resources to assist”.
For those in KwaZulu-Natal, when connectivity is reinstated, we suggest following the KZN Provincial Government account on Twitter which is providing updates and recommendations around the situation.
Stay Safe. #KZNFloods pic.twitter.com/nOTIFulwiK
— KZN Provincial Gov (@kzngov) April 12, 2022
