November 2, 2022

Beat load shedding! While everyone suffers from the typical effects of load shedding, such as dark homes and cold food, the loss of network and Internet connectivity becomes an increasingly serious issue during periods of higher outages, such as stage four to six load shedding.

The term “load shedding” is well-known and hated in our country. It has become routine for South Africans to check the load shedding schedule and organise their days around power interruptions. The deliberate power failures cause economic instability by reducing output, decreasing earnings, raising the danger of theft, and damaging devices. Cell phone tower impact is a lesser-known effect. This blog examines how load shedding impacts signal and offers solutions.

Effects Of Load Shedding On Cell Phone Towers

In South Africa, the majority of cell phone towers include a backup battery that comes on when load shedding interrupts the power supply. The batteries’ ability to fully recharge has been hampered by the protracted period of rolling blackouts. The batteries need between 12 and 18 hours to fully recharge, which they cannot do given the current timetable.

According to a statement made public by Telkom, one of the largest telecommunications providers in the nation, base stations have backup batteries installed to keep them operational even if the power supply is interrupted, but we all know that no batteries last forever right?

In some circumstances, the batteries have been wrongfully destroyed or were even stolen; in this case, when the power source is interrupted, the tower will immediately turn off. The damage is far greater as a result of theft and vandalism at MTN base stations, according to Jacqui O’Sullivan, Executive for Corporate Affairs at MTN SA. Over 800 batteries were taken between June and September of this year.