Zamtel has lost US$ 50,000 in incidents of vandalism on its critical equipment which has resulted in downgraded internet service quality.
Zamtel Chief Executive Officer Sydney Mupeta confirmed that preliminary investigations point to acts of vandalism by unknown people.
Mr Mupeta disclosed that multiple sites in Lusaka have been affected with Makeni and Meanwood suffering the most damage to equipment over the last few days.
He said that the cost of the damaged equipment is estimated to be around US$ 50,000 per site.
“We wish to inform our customers and the general public that the out-of-character slow internet they have been experiencing over the last few days is due to acts of vandalism that we have suffered on some of our critical equipment used to supply our internet service such as Velocity,” Mr Mupeta said.
Mr. Mupeta stated that a further examination of the damaged equipment and sophistication of the act suggest that the vandals could be individuals with sound technical knowledge of the telecom industry.
He added, “Our team of Engineers are examining all sites and working round the clock to ensure that service is restored to optimal levels. It might take a few days and possibly weeks to fully repair the damaged equipment.”
“We wish to apologize to our valued customers and we appeal that they bear with us as we address the negative effects of this vandalism and work to restore full service quality.
This is contained in a statement issued by Zamtel Corporate Communications Manager Changwe Kabwe.
