Daily Express Subscriber
Sign in to your account.

TELEKOM Malaysia Bhd (TM) and Celcom Timur (Sabah) Sdn Bhd will step up efforts to check on the condition of their installations, following feedback about the damaged or leaning poles, as well as a fallen cable, in Manggatal, on Signal Hill and in the Kopungit area of Kepayan.

Homeowners at the first two locations spoke out about the damaged poles which were respectively located along Jalan Gudon and Jalan Punchak. 

One had toppled over and was barely 45 degrees from the road reserve, while the other had broken in two, with the top half hanging from the rest of the structure.

Any pedestrians or drivers who were unlucky enough to be passing-by underneath, when the poles gave way, would surely be injured or worse, according to them.

They also bemoaned the hassle of having to go over the telephone cables lying across the verge and road.

So far, they said, the lines remained intact. However, TM customers in the vicinity would surely experience problems with their services if the wires snapped, according to them.

A Kepayan motorist, meanwhile, was perturbed by a pole near Kopungit Hill, which had gradually been inching towards the road shoulder along a section of Jalan Pintas.

Each of these individuals provided Hotline with the pertinent details regarding these irregularities which were forwarded to the relevant companies.

A TM spokesman said inspections were made of the three roads, shortly after the firm learned about the problems involving the poles.

“Our staff confirmed that the ones on Jalan Gudon and Jalan Punchak were TM assets,” he said. “The pole on Jalan Pintas was not ours.”

“Both poles were no longer upright. One looked as if it could be knocked over by strong winds while the other might have been pulled out of place when the line snagged on top of a large vehicle.”

He said the cable supported by the former was lying on the verge and the one supported by the latter was straddling the width of the road.

A separate team from the company’s Technical Division returned a few days later to attend to attend to both poles and the fallen line.

He said the former structures were returned to the original positions, with “stay wires” put in place to keep them standing as they should. 

“The cable on Jalan Punchak was bunched up and tied to the affected pole.”

The spokesman said there was no fixed maintenance schedule for TM installations around the State Capital.

“Our assets are attended to as and when it becomes necessary to do so.”

To this end, he said the company’s staff had been asked to be more mindful of any irregularities involving these structures and to take the appropriate action.

“We also hope that our subscribers will inform us directly of any problems involving our wires and poles.” 

The Signal Hill resident who noticed the damaged pole and fallen cable had initially reported this irregularity to City Hall. When not action was forthcoming more than a month later, she contacted Hotline for assistance.

A spokesman for the agency refuted the suggestion that her report had been ignored, saying that it was helpless to intervene, as both installations did not belong to City Hall.

“Contrary to what the rate-payer believed, the pole was not a lamp post and the cable was not part of the public lighting on Signal Hill,” he said.

He said the same was also true of the leaning pole on Jalan Pintas.

CelcomDigi was asked about this structure, with a spokesman confirming that it was not theirs either.

A spokesman for Celcom Timur (Sabah) later acknowledged that the pole in question belonged to the company.

“We attended to this structure shortly before we were contacted by the media,” he said. 

“Our technicians noted the presence of another damaged pole nearby but could do little about this one as it is not one of ours.”

Celcom Timur (Sabah) is a joint venture company which is geared towards setting up fibre optic networks around the State.