[BrianC]

South Africa Fights To Keep Phone Networks Up as Lights Go Out (reuters.com) 117
Posted by msmash on Wednesday April 05, 2023 @12:55PM from the tough-luck dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report:
On a recent Friday morning north of Johannesburg, the head of South Africa's largest telecoms company surveyed the arsenal of backup systems keeping just one of his 15,000 network towers online amid the worst power cuts on record. A diesel generator. Solar panels. A bank of expensive backup batteries, theft-proofed within a block of concrete. "Our costs have gone through the roof," lamented Sitho Mdlalose, managing director of Vodacom South Africa. As the national power grid crumbles, leaving Africa's most advanced economy in the dark for up to 10 hours a day, mobile operators including Vodacom, MTN and majority state-owned Telkom are scrambling to ensure their networks stay up and running. https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/04/0 ... hts-go-out

They're spending millions to install solar panels, batteries and are even trialling wind turbines, while targeting deals with independent power producers to supplement struggling state utility Eskom's increasingly unreliable output, three company executives told Reuters. At stake: essential voice and data services in a nation where landlines are rare but nearly 80% of residents have access to mobile internet. Overall, the power crisis and logistical constraints are expected to erase 2 percentage points from economic growth this year, according to the South African Reserve Bank governor. Mary-Jane Mphahlele, an attorney who also runs a small travel agency in the city of Polokwane, experiences that lost economic activity every time the power is cut. "New clients can't call me ... That means no money is going to come into my business," the 29-year-old said. "It's hell." As they battle to simply mitigate the worsening crisis, telecommunications companies have seen operating costs balloon. Vodacom and MTN executives told Reuters they're having to divert capital away from much needed network upgrades and 5G rollouts. Meanwhile, they said government regulations are blocking potential solutions, such as sharing backup power infrastructure with their competitors, and revealed they're lobbying authorities to help ease the pain.

[theluckycountry]

Well I'm tempted to blame it all on Black mismanagement of the country but I suspect the colonial powers have a hand in the decline too. It's clear they never wanted Africa as a whole to succeed, far too much wealth there across the diverse nation states. Or perhaps Tribal states might be a better term?

[jato0072]

Unfortunately it appears they are going to join Rhodesia in the ash heap of civilization. Sad.

[Newfie]

Add Sir Lanka.

[Plantagenet]

The real problem in South Africa is power outages.

The reason the phone networks go down is that the power grid goes down.

And why is the power network going out for up to 10 hours per day in South Africa?

Corruption.

south-africa-power-cuts-electricity-corruption-

It takes a lot of money to keep power plants up and running.

In South Africa the money is being drained away by corruption at the power company.

It's estimated that multiple different criminal groups are ripping off the power company for over half a billion dollars per year.



Corruption =loss of money for power plant maintainance = no power = no cell phone service.

The relatively low levels of corruption seen in some estern countries are an anomaly......Most other countries are hopelessly corrupt.

Cheers!

[Newfie]

Puerto Rico heading in similar direction.

[evilgenius]

Maybe there is some sort of philosophical reason for this? Because it's happening to one of those countries that is jumping on the train with Russia. They, along with India and others, seem to think that the world pivots around a certain universal center. Economies operate within universes. This universe may be hobbled by its inability to lose the idea that the state should naturally own all resources, not those individual people who discover them. In this case, it's how the fascists own everything, not how the communists do.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', 'M')aybe there is some sort of philosophical reason for this? Because it's happening to one of those countries that is jumping on the train with Russia. They, along with India and others, seem to think that the world pivots around a certain universal center. Economies operate within universes. This universe may be hobbled by its inability to lose the idea that the state should naturally own all resources, not those individual people who discover them. In this case, it's how the fascists own everything, not how the communists do.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '
')You can be a Fascist AND a Communist at the same time, they certainly are not mutually exclusive.
Peace

[Makati1]

Don't forget, crypto relies on the internet. When the SHTF, the internet will be the first to go for common people like you and me. Loss of electric will do the same. Just another form of fake 'money' only fools rely on.

The SHTF moment may not be far away with the insane US beating on the bear and dragon daily. If you don't hold it in your hand you don't have/own it. Barter in necessities may be the only way to survive, not internet digits.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Makati1', 'D')on't forget, crypto relies on the internet. When the SHTF, the internet will be the first to go for common people like you and me. Loss of electric will do the same. Just another form of fake 'money' only fools rely on.

The SHTF moment may not be far away with the insane US beating on the bear and dragon daily. If you don't hold it in your hand you don't have/own it. Barter in necessities may be the only way to survive, not internet digits.

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '
')
If it is an EMP attack and takes out the U.S. internet ...
So worse case I can't use my BTC for a while, but it is still there.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')Hannah Arendt in her book THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM showed that while totalitarian states may have superficial differences, they are fundamentally the same. Arendt referred to the German variety of totalitarianism as "Black Fascism" and the Russian variety of totalitarianism as "Red Fascism."

[theluckycountry]

South African businesses should prepare for a grid collapse

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')n the back of Stage 6 loadshedding last week following SONA, David Lipton, founder and CEO of globalCom Africa, says local business need to prepare for what lies beyond Stage 8.
With a collapse of the power grid a significant possibility, solutions that provide connectivity will prove essential for local businesses.

[mousepad]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '
')CEOs are worried South Africa is falling apart