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Communications Tower
    new digital
exchange (27 July 2000)
Until 1997 Kwasizabantu's telephone system was the usual Telkom farm system which
relied mostly on copper wire. During the 90's copper wire theft increased dramatically
throughout South Africa and Kwasizabantu was affected everytime copper was
"redistributed" between the mission and Greytown which is 50km away.
These thefts became so regular that KSB and other farms between here and Greytown were
offline for days at a time, almost every other week. This turned to our advantage because
Telkom decided that the only way to solve the problem was to install a microwave system.
We then built a 27 metre tower and Telkom put their dish which connects to an optic fibre
system at their receiver tower in Eshowe. There is enough bandwidth for many lines as well
as a permanent leased digital line.
A central exchange at KSB hosts about a hundred extensions and has a number of external
lines.
Update 26 July 2000
A new digital system is being installed. See photos above. Also, MTN and Vodacom are
installing their equipment on the KSB property.
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