Durban - While Telkom moves towards a wireless system in a bid to address the problem of cable theft, the elderly, many of whom still depend on landlines, say they are being penalised by the changes.
Munsami Naidoo, 86, of Isipingo Beach, said he wanted clarity on whether he would be forced to migrate to wireless, as he felt it would cost him more than he currently pays for his landline.
He said he paid R160 a month for his landline, but this could escalate to over R200 with the migration.
When Naidoo initially got the call about the transition from a Telkom call centre, he was told that the whole country was migrating to wireless and that he had until Saturday to make the change.
“I live in a block of flats with 12 units, but nobody knows about this. There are about eight blocks of flats on my road, and no one else has received calls about this migration, so I’m wondering why me?”
“My wife and I depend on the landline, because we are old and we don't have cellphones. I was told that if I do not migrate, I would lose my land-
line number. And if we don't have a phone, what are we to do if something happens to one of us, and we need to phone for help?”
Naidoo said he received a call from someone who told him they were phoning from Telkom’s head office at the weekend.
“They said the information I got from the call centre was incorrect. They said as a customer I had other options and I would not lose my land-
line number like I was told by the call centre. It would seem the call centres are targeting the elderly,” he remarked.
Avashni Naidu of Black Sash said they were aware of Telkom’s migration to wireless, and that it would seem to be to the detriment of those in the lower-income brackets.
“This is a concern for us because pensioners depend on their landline in case of emergencies. Some have children living abroad, and a landline allows them to keep in touch while still controlling how much they spend.”
Telkom spokesperson Nomalungelo Fakuc said it was not true that the elderly were being targeted, as all Telkom copper-cable customers - especially those located in areas with high fault and theft rates - had been marked for the migration.
“About a month ago, Telkom released an announcement noting that it had successfully upgraded over 96% of its prepaid fixed-line customers to a wireless prepaid service in support of its ambition to improve its customer experience,” she said.
Faku said since then, Telkom had been conducting a “proactive migration” and decommissioning simultaneously for the remaining customers.
“In the case of Mr Naidoo, he was mistakenly contacted at the time, and provided with information meant for customers marked for decommission.
“We have since contacted Mr Naidoo and explained the error, and that his service would not be terminated on Saturday; but it will at some point be migrated to the wireless platform.”
A Daily News back-chatter, who would not be named, said she moved from Hillary to Hillcrest this year and was told by Telkom that there were no landlines where they had moved to.
“We had a lot of problems trying to get the wireless system up-and-running. We had to get an IT guy to come here,” she said.
The woman said the process of setting up the system required that customers had to go to Telkom’s offices. Her husband had gone to their offices a number of times while they had problems setting up the system.
“It must be more frustrating for pensioners having to go back and forth to Telkom’s offices,” she pointed out.