Telkom outage angers PMB residents and businesses

Durban - TELKOM says a power failure in Pietermaritzburg could have been the cause of intermittent service failures in the city yesterday.

Residents and business owners had complained of problems with their Telkom landlines and the internet from the morning. A businesswoman, who would not be named, said she rented out offices and work desks. She said her business was affected by the intermittent service.

“It seems very unprofessional to rent out a work desk for a day while the internet is not working or is very slow. People expect to receive and make their business calls, but when the lines are off it is unfair for me to charge them money for services they do not receive. Telkom has made our lives difficult, especially small business owners,” she said.

Msunduzi Municipality spokesperson Ntobe Ngcobo said they had experienced problems with the phones at the municipality from the morning until midday.

“We have noticed that the landlines have been on and off. I noticed that between meetings. We were not sure what the problem was. I cannot be sure how much the malfunction of the landlines affected the daily mandate as I was in meetings most of the day,” he said.

Telkom spokesperson Mooketsi Mocumi said they had checked the Pietermaritzburg area, but nothing seemed to be wrong and the network was running normally.

“We also just learned there has been a power failure in some of the suburbs and that could be the cause of some of the problems,” said Mocumi.

Daily News