I have been on Vodafone Fixed Broadband since April 30, 2010 and I have little complains about the uptime. The uptime is actually great (for me).

My problem with Vodafone Ghana is the number of times the broadband/fixed line cables get stolen and replaced. It seems nothing is being done aside replacing them, absolutely nothing! It just keeps recurring.

In the past 4 months, the cables in my neighbourhood have been stolen 5 times. All 5 times, Vodafone Ghana has replaced them within a week but done nothing to prevent them from getting stolen again. Someone is obviously not doing their job well. How on earth does replaced cables get stolen in a week or two and all you do is replace them? Does Vodafone Ghana have that much cables to replace stolen cables every week whilst some potential costumers can’t get on the service because there are ‘no cables’.

I live in New Achimota, not too far from the Korkdam Hotel. I woke up at dawn, Sunday, a little after 3am like I always do to finish some outstanding work. I wasn’t surprised to see my internet wasn’t working. I reached for the landline and there was no dial tone. Yes, the cables have been stolen again. Strike number 6 and all in the last 5 months.

Cables Hanging

Disappointed, I went to bed and phoned costumer service in the morning to report it. Madina? He asked. No, Achimota, I replied. He took my details and said “We will get back to you”. So, this is not an Achimota problem after all. Madina too? My friend Barima, who lives in East Legon has had similar complaints (and he has a tougher time getting them replaced. I am quite lucky Haruna from the Achimota exchange always answers my calls). So what is being done to stop this?

The cable thieves can’t win! Besides, I have paid for the service and as much as Vodafone Ghana expects me to pay my bill every 30 days, I don’t expect to be cut of the service haven paid for the service. As a matter of fact, when I went to pay my bill for November, the costumer service lady convinced me to upgrade to Browser Max (2mbps) and pay 2 months of bill for which Vodafone Ghana would give me an additional month for free. My account thus expires in February 2012 and I don’t expect to be disconnected from the service till then.

For weeks, I have been playing the neighbourhood vigilante, waking up at 2am (for the most times, the cables have been stolen on Sundays, between 2am and 3am) to check on the cables. I get scared sometimes and my friends have advised me it’s not the safest thing to do.

My After-2am Tweets

This is not funny. Whoever is in charge of broadband or fixed lines at Vodafone Ghana should get to work. Can’t they see the pattern; Weekends, After 2am? Isn’t Vodafone Ghana big enough to get the police on this or think of a brilliant way to beat these criminals? If this whole fixed broadband isn’t working, it shouldn’t be difficult for Vodafone Ghana to provide NLOS modems.

Now, I have to wait up to 5 working days for the cables to be replaced and my broadband internet to be restored and another week or two for the cables to be stolen again.

Power to you!