MTN cellphone tower in Centurion shut down over Tshwane billing issue

·7 Sep 2017

An MTN cellphone tower in Centurion has been forced onto generator power due to a billing issue with the City of Tshwane, upsetting residents.

Residents in Rooihuiskraal in Centurion have expressed frustration over the past few weeks after loud generators were hauled into the quiet neighbourhood to keep an MTN tower powered up.

The tower is located on church grounds in the area, with the property owners claiming that Eskom had cut off power to the tower because of unpaid bills amounting to tens of thousands of rands.

MTN said that it was not aware of any outstanding electricity bills for the specific site, but noted that when certain areas experience frequent outages, electricity infrastructure problems, or any other issue leading to power being cut off, towers are put onto generator power to maintain service levels.

The mobile operator followed up with the City of Thswane and found that the underlying problem was a mix-up of utility bills.

“MTN can confirm that the power cut to its site located at a church in Rooihuiskraal occurred as a result of a mix-up of utility bills. The City of Tshwane had mistakenly sent the bill payable by MTN to the church. We hope that power will be restored to the site once the matter has been resolved,” it said.

MTN said that running generators to keep cellphone towers powered comes at a huge cost to the company – often a net loss, when considering how much the group earns per tower in some areas – and it is in its own best interest to restore normal functioning as soon as possible.

The mobile operator could not confirm if other towers in the area have been affected by similar billing issues.