South African telecommunications company MTN will temporarily halt building new network sites and rolling out 5G to focus on installing back-up power, which will result in higher data and voice prices for consumers. Eskom's load shedding initiative is causing businesses to pass on costs to consumers. The situation is adding to MTN’s capital expenditure, which it has to pass on to consumers via price increases. MTN's CEO, Charles Molapisi, stated that MTN's internal data shows that over 390 unique sites had been vandalised since January 2022 alone, with criminals returning to the same sites more than five times after each repair. Additionally, prolonged periods of load shedding are also fuelling cases of theft and vandalism at its sites. MTN's latest financial statements show that between R1.5 billion (~$84 million) to R2 billion (~$112 million) will go towards its “network resilience programme” to ensure network availability during load-shedding.

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