Pietermaritzburg - Telkom is suing its first direct telecommunications competitor, Neotel, and another company, for R363 744 in the Pietermaritzburg High Court for damage caused to underground cables in Hillcrest.
Neotel, and its sub-contractor Reesa Telecoms and Electrical, have denied blame and passed the buck to the Nokia Siemens network.
In a reserved judgment handed down yesterday, Judge Nkosinathi Chili consented to Nokia’s being added as a respondent.
Candice Breval-Green, a general manager in Neotel’s legal department, said that at the beginning of 2007, the company set out as a competitor in the market to establish its own infrastructure, in particular, a fibre optic cable network, in opposition to Telkom.
Because of the tremendous task involved in installing the cables, Neotel outsourced work to certain strategic service providers.
One of the service providers was Nokia.
Breval-Green said Nokia had subcontracted Reesa to do the work in Hillcrest on September 16, 2008, when damage was caused to Telkom’s underground cable, installed along Old Main Road, across from Toyota Car Sales.
NEOTEL INDEMNIFIED?
According to Breval-Green’s interpretation of the agreement between Neotel and Nokia, Neotel was indemnified for up to R500 000 for damages caused.
However, Nokia’s legal adviser, Candice Govender, hit back, saying the indemnity did not apply to damage caused to Telkom’s property, but only to Neotel property.
She was opposed to the company’s being joined in the application.
Telkom’s particulars of claim said that three 2 700m optic cables were damaged. It said employees of Neotel, Reesa, or both, had negligently caused the damage.
As contractors, they should have known that the property underground belonged to Telkom, and should have advised the utility of the intended maintenance, construction, renovation, trenching or establishment.
They were aware of, or ought to have foreseen, the presence of Telkom’s cables.
Court papers did not specify how the cables were damaged. The case was adjourned.
The Mercury