Because of looters, thousands of Ukrainians every day remain without the Internet

Huge losses providers can lie on the shoulders of customers.

Cases of theft of elements of infrastructure in Telecom networks become more and more. Monthly market operators suffer millions in losses, and their customers are left without Internet.

According to the Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Association of communication operators “Telas” Leonid Osherov, last year members of the Association is declared not less than UAH 400 million of losses as a result of 5 thousand theft of network elements.Even stealing entire racks of equipment. On restored connection in such cases can take weeks.

Catch and release

As they say themselves, the company, the day is done 10-15 thefts – this catastrophic situation was not for all the years of independence.

As noted by the consultant in the Telecom industry, Roman Khimich, today we can speak about the problem not even vandalism and deliberate destruction of telecommunication equipment. Its driving forces are no longer a disorderly or aimless aggression (vandalism).

At the forefront мародtрство cables simply steal for resale. Rampage and competitors, arranging the so-called economic sabotage.

According to generictorsemide “Freenet” Victor Frolov, daily throughout Ukraine steal the equipment for tens of thousands of hryvnia. For 2 months his company has recorded 21 theft amounting to more than half a million hryvnias.

As the Director of corporate communications at PJSC “Ukrtelecom” Mikhail Shuranov, in 2016 only about their company, which recorded about 19 thousand cases of thefts and damage of cables that led to the interruption in services have 1 million subscribers. And managed to recover the Internet connection is still not for everyone.

“700 thousand restored. The repair process goes. We fix that criminals steal. The problem is that the thieves have long been known, they are detained 3 or 4 or more times. But released, using article 185, part 1 (there is only a fine). While there are all prerequisites to use 2-3 parts (committing theft again in the group, and with the penetration of, for example, in a room (cellar, attic, well), — said Mikhail Shuranov.

While operativetravel damage, the subscriber does not have access to the Internet. “And then it all depends on how quickly and efficiently the operator can or buy new equipment, or to drive him from the warehouse and re-install,” said us Chairman of the Internet Association of Ukraine Alexander Fedenko.

Will mortgage rates

In this case, the Ukrainians themselves may not know the reasons why they have gone online. They complain about domestic problems providers or just waiting for signal restoration. And the subscription fee ceases to accrue only from the date of registration of the connection (complaints or documentation of theft of the cable).

“We need to fix the lack of service. But if you have information about the theft, we automatically track who lost service. If bugs are solved in working order”, — said Mikhail Shuranov.

However, the “downtime” undermine customer loyalty and many customers, not waiting for the decision of problems, just go to competitors, who often provide services in the same building.

Many providers seek help to ciecam and condominiums to those set additional locks masterstroke Telecom equipment, attics, basements. There usually steal (often someone from the local).

The calm – on rates of theft should not be affected. “The elimination of damage networks takes from several hours to several days depending on the scale of the vandalism. As a rule, the operators of all of the terms of compensation negotiated in the contracts. Many counted the cost of services for a specific period of time or offer a larger scope of services,” — said in a conversation with the UBR.appreciately of the Board of the Telecommunications chamber of Ukraine Tatyana Popova.

However, if the situation in the near future will not improve, says Roman Khimich, companies will be forced to raise rates to offset the costs of restoring lost infrastructure.

“All the costs are laid in the fare, nowhere else. While these costs are small – so far only up to 5-7% purchased by cable operators is to restore the damaged and stolen property. But the number of thefts is constantly increasing, and the situation worsens,” added the chemical.

In some cases, operators are forced to curtail activities. And, for example, in Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk Kyivstar ponders the rejection of copper cable (i.e. twisted pair) to favor optical, because of theft of copper cable and networking equipment has acquired a mass character.

To ward off thieves cut cables, according to experts, should be the tightening of legislation in this area, as well as a ban primovacations copper cable from individuals. the Corresponding bill is already prepared and soon it intend to register in the Verkhovna Rada.

“We have prepared changes in the law, which return the article on criminal liability for corruption of all types of communication lines, which was abolished in 2008. In the first case, the penalty will be one to two years of imprisonment in case of repetition provided by the other terms. Today I will register the data changes in the criminal code,” — said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Informatization and communications Oleksandr Danchenko.

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