News / National
Pair held for contravening the telecommunications laws
25 Oct 2012 at 05:21hrs | Views
Two Harare men who allegedly operated an underground telecommunications system that by-passed local service providers appeared in court on Tuesday for contravening the telecommunications laws.
Herald Reitbauer (50) and Edgar Makoni (37) allegedly established the station which offered Internet services and distorted incoming international calls to make them appear as if they originated from Zimbabwe.
The duo was not formally charged for contravening the Postal and Telecommunications Act when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Donald Ndirowei.
Mr Ndirowei remanded them to November 6 on US$50 bail.
Prosecutor Mr Innocent Chingarande alleged that Reitbauer is self-employed as the director of Earth Internet Services, while Makoni is a management consultant.
He alleged that on October 17, detectives received information from Godfrey Mangezi, an investigations officer at Econet, that Makoni was offering Internet services without a licence through the use of a sim box.
The sim box, the court was told, operated in a way that international traffic or calls were being re-routed to go via that sim box. The calls would be terminated on the Econet network thus by-passing the normal route used by Econet.
The termination of the Econet network would lead to an international call appearing as originating from an Econet subscriber, thus hiding the foreign number, it is alleged.
This allegedly happens due to the Econet sim cards and numbers inserted or configured in the sim box.
Makoni was arrested last week and a sim box registered in his name was discovered. He bought recharge airtime for the sim cards. Makoni implicated Reitbauer who was arrested the following day.
Reitbauer allegedly led detectives and Mr Tapera Kazembe, an engineer from Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) to 55 Livingstone Avenue, Harare, where a Quintum box and a Quescom 400 box, among other equipment, were recovered.
The equipment was reportedly disconnected by Kazembe after it was discovered that it connects to different networks, landline and mobile networks.
The equipment seized was taken to CID homicide as exhibits.
Herald Reitbauer (50) and Edgar Makoni (37) allegedly established the station which offered Internet services and distorted incoming international calls to make them appear as if they originated from Zimbabwe.
The duo was not formally charged for contravening the Postal and Telecommunications Act when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Donald Ndirowei.
Mr Ndirowei remanded them to November 6 on US$50 bail.
Prosecutor Mr Innocent Chingarande alleged that Reitbauer is self-employed as the director of Earth Internet Services, while Makoni is a management consultant.
He alleged that on October 17, detectives received information from Godfrey Mangezi, an investigations officer at Econet, that Makoni was offering Internet services without a licence through the use of a sim box.
The sim box, the court was told, operated in a way that international traffic or calls were being re-routed to go via that sim box. The calls would be terminated on the Econet network thus by-passing the normal route used by Econet.
The termination of the Econet network would lead to an international call appearing as originating from an Econet subscriber, thus hiding the foreign number, it is alleged.
This allegedly happens due to the Econet sim cards and numbers inserted or configured in the sim box.
Makoni was arrested last week and a sim box registered in his name was discovered. He bought recharge airtime for the sim cards. Makoni implicated Reitbauer who was arrested the following day.
Reitbauer allegedly led detectives and Mr Tapera Kazembe, an engineer from Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) to 55 Livingstone Avenue, Harare, where a Quintum box and a Quescom 400 box, among other equipment, were recovered.
The equipment was reportedly disconnected by Kazembe after it was discovered that it connects to different networks, landline and mobile networks.
The equipment seized was taken to CID homicide as exhibits.
Source - TH
