Zimpapers Logo

Herald Reporter
TelOne lost about $500 000 over the weekend when small-scale miners vandalised network infrastructure while panning for gold in Mashonaland West Province.

The $500 000 was lost in restoring services and through revenue lost due to downtime. The vandalism of the cross-border link in the Kariba-Makuti area left over 1 200 clients without voice calls and Internet   services.

TelOne acting corporate communications head Ms Hazel Ndebele told The Herald yesterday: “Small-scale miners are damaging the TelOne network infrastructure, with the most recent damage being the cross-border link in Kariba/Makuti area, which was impaired over the weekend, affecting more than 1 200 clients at an estimated average cost of $500 000.

“The cross-border link carries data and voice traffic for the whole of Kariba and other countries up north who connect through Zambia.”