By Michelle Amba – EM TV News, Port Moresby
Telecommunications company, Telikom PNG, had its main cable connections sabotaged last Thursday in the capital, Port Moresby.
More than 600 metres of copper cables and fiber optic lines between Ela Beach and Boroko exchanges got burnt after being set alight.
While police are yet to make any arrests, Telikom PNG is working on restoring all services.
The fire affected around 800 customers including Bank South Pacific, Air Niugini and Ela Motors. Telikom PNG is treating this as a criminal matter calling on people with information to report it to police.
Voice, mobile, internet and data services in NCD have been disrupted since Thursday last week, however, Telikom is adamant all services will be restored soon.
Regional Manager for NCD and Southern Region, Bill Wartovo, said, “The boys have been working on the cables since Thursday and have most services restored with only a fraction to be fixed by tonight, and by tomorrow all should be back”.
Deliberate damage to telecommunications infrastructure is illegal under the NICTA act of 2009 and Telikom says whoever has information leading to the successful arrests and prosecution of perpetrators will be rewarded.
There are no immediate plans to avoid future damage like this, but the company is urging all to respect infrastructure that provide essential services for the development of the country’s economy.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0eobMrwjMPw%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0