* Let’s stand together to protect the lifeline that connects us all. It’s your network, your Airtel, your Faya — lets keeping it burning, let’s keep it safe
By Duncan Mlanjira
As vandalism of its fibre cable infrastructure continues to disrupt Airtel Malawi Plc on monthly basis, the country’s leading mobile phone, internet and mobile money service provider is pledging to reward any credible leads that can help identify the perpetrators to bring them to book.
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A public statement that was issued yesterday depicted an image of a local fibre cable line that has been dug up and cut away by unscrupulous vandals that led to internet network disruption.
“This is not an isolated incident,” says Airtel in the statement. “We suffer multiple fibre cuts every month and what’s alarming is that these deliberate attacks are happening mostly on Airtel’s network.
“These acts are not just attacks on Airtel, they are attacks on all of us — on students trying to study online; on families staying connected; on business trying to grow; and on customers trying to live their digital lives.
“We are actively working with authorities to track down those responsible but we cannot fight this battle alone,” says Airtel while pledging to duly reward those who identify perpetrators of this sad development.
“Let’s stand together to protect the lifeline that connects us all,” implores Airtel. “It’s your network, your Airtel, your Faya — let’s keeping it burning, let’s keep it safe.”
In November last year, following concerns of internet connectivity outages, Airtel reported to the Parliamentary Committee on Media, Information & Communication that they were facing a lot of challenges due to the fibre cable cuts vandalism on their connectivity lines.
The Parliamentary Committee’s chairperson Susan Dossi told the media after the meeting that they invited the mobile phone service provider to the engagement meeting to appreciate the challenges they are facing.
Just as Airtel has alluded to, Dossi also attested to that “communication is key and most of the times people do business online and also communicate online with colleagues”.
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“If people are failing to do that because of poor internet or calls services, that’s a big challenge,” she had said.
Airtel had already announced to the public that the network challenges rose between August and October due to international fiber outages in Mozambique and Zambia and locally from some areas in Malawi.
At it continues to take place, Airtel thus asks for the intervention of the public through the reward incentive — an indication that some people may have credible knowledge of perpetrators but choose to remain silent.
But what the public should realise it that network outages has many ripple effect on everyone as Malawi joins the global village in the advancement of technology in which every sector of business, education, health, and even agriculture, is relying on stable internet network.
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