Power cuts hit phone companies

Cellphone companies are coming under huge financial strain as a result of load-shedding, and it is increasingly likely that consumers will pay more for data bundles.

Given research by think tank Pew Research that shows that more than half of South Africans now own a smart phone, the impact of load-shedding will be substantial.

Vodacom said it has already spent significant amounts on backup power solutions such as diesel generators and batteries to maintain power to its sites, and additional input costs and revenue losses amount to tens of millions of rands.

Batteries have a limited number of charge or deplete cycles, which means the more often they are called on to work, the shorter their lifespan.

With infrequent power outages, a battery can last for five years, but with frequent outages due to load-shedding this will reduce to one or two years.

Despite significant investments in battery backup systems and generators, MTN’s network sites continue to face threats due to load-shedding.

The majority of MTN’s sites have been equipped with battery backup systems to ensure there is enough power on site to run the systems for several hours when local power goes down. However, the frequency of stage 3 and 4 load-shedding is resulting in batteries not having enough time to recharge.

Excluding the amount spent on new batteries for new cellphone sites, MTN spent about R300m last year on batteries for existing sites. In addition to the batteries, MTN has 1,800 generators currently in use and the company spent more than R120m on diesel fuel last year, to power these generators.

Another significant additional cost of the load-shedding is the extra on-site security that is needed to protect the batteries, generators and general site equipment from thieves and vandals, according to MTN South Africa corporate affairs executive Jacqui O’Sullivan.

In a statement to the Dispatch on Wednesday, Vodacom said pricing depended on various input costs and related factors.

Koketso Moeti of amandla.mobi, a Johannesburg-based advocacy platform and supporter of lower data prices, is deeply concerned about the potential rise in data costs as a result of load-shedding.

She hoped load-shedding was not being used as an excuse by the cellphone companies to fleece consumers.

“Sometimes consumers buy smaller, one-hour data bundles but the excuse could be used that there was no network coverage because of load-shedding. We hope that load-shedding won’t be used as an excuse not to roll the bundle over,” she said.