Jovan Ilić, the technical director of the internet and cable operator “Jotel” from Niš, told the Beta agency that the workers of the Public Enterprise “Urbanizam” from Vranje started cutting the cables of that operator last night around 10 p.m., but the citizens chased them away and prevented them from doing more damage.
Ilić recalled that on April 30 and May 4, “Urbanizma” workers cut down poles and fiber optic network of “Jotel” in several streets, thus leaving around 500 households without internet and cable television.
He said that on April 30 and May 4, “Urbanizma” workers cut down poles and poles at the crack of dawn, at 5:30 a.m., with the assistance of about 50 policemen, but that yesterday they changed their “tactics” so that nothing happened during the day, but then they went to the field in the evening.
“Our workers repair the network again and again, but sometimes it takes more teams and a longer time because they ‘target’ first of all the street where our main optical lines are,” Ilić pointed out.
According to his words, what happened in Niš is being repeated in Vranje, namely that at the time when the optical network was being destroyed by them, the employees of “Telecom” were offering the services of that company to the users of “Jotel” at “dumping prices”.
“In front of our branch office in Vranje, a ‘Telecom’ stand has been set up, and citizens who are our users are offered packages that include significantly lower service prices than market prices and televisions for just one dinar. We have a recording of the conversation from the stand that confirms this,” said Ilić.
He reminded that in Vranje, as well as in many other places in the south of Serbia, the workers of Elektrodistribucija started to cut their cables last summer, for which they complained to the Administrative Courts.
“We received in our favor the decisions of the Administrative Courts in all places, except in Vranje. There, the Administrative Court was of the opinion that there was no basis for its action because the network had already been cut. We appealed to the Court of Appeals against that decision of the Administrative Court and we await its decision,” Ilić pointed out.
According to his words, damage was done to “Jotel” in Vranje “which is measured in tens of millions of dinars”, so he will file criminal charges against those who ordered the cutting of their fiber optic network poles.
Ilić said that their poles and cables were cut even though they received all the necessary permits for their installation more than 15 years ago.
The owner of “Jotel” operator, Dragan Ilić, told the Beta agency earlier that the removal of “Jotel” cables and poles is part of the pressures that operator has been suffering for the last five years, all because of “Telekom’s” efforts to buy them.
“At first, five years ago, they asked us to sell the company, but when they saw that they could not introduce a monopoly and dictate what people would watch on television, and that was the main reason for the pressure, then they started open pressure,” Ilić pointed out.
After refusing to sell “Jotel”, he said, the tax inspection was first sent to them, and then the cables from the poles of Elektrodistribucija in cities and municipalities in the south of Serbia began to be cut.
He said that “Jotel” fought in almost all courts for almost all cities and Elektrodistribucija had to stop doing that.
“Tax inspectors were there for a month and could not find any violations, and then they started to copy the entire user base and deliver copies. They did this so that Telekom could see when the contract expires and offer its service packages,” said Ilić.
He pointed out that “Jotel” is the oldest operator in the south of Serbia, with 20 years of work, during which he paid electricity distribution companies more than 200 million dinars for the use of their poles.
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