Vodacom will spend R340 million to expand its network in areas in the central regions of Free State and the Northern Cape, with a focus on upgrading and adding new sites in rural areas.
The telecoms giant said part of the investment would include adding new 3G-, 4G-, and 5G-enabled sites in urban areas, as well as in deep rural areas, to further population coverage.
According to Vodacom, 3G coverage in the areas in the central region has already reached 98.25%, with 4G at 92%. There are plans in the pipeline to triple the 5G footprint in the two provinces by increasing the number of sites to 58.
Evah Mthimunye, managing executive for Vodacom’s Central Region, said the network rollout programme last year had brought the internet to many communities for the first time.
Mthimunye said the central region had seen a massive jump in network traffic in the past year, which had to be supported by increased network capacity. “In addition to supporting the region’s 44.2% year-on-year surge in data traffic, LTE capacity is crucial, as almost 90% of this data traffic is on LTE technology,” Mthimunye explained.
“This financial year we want to build on this achievement by extending broadband coverage and investing in network upgrades to increase access to connectivity.”
Mthimunye added that the drive was expected to close the digital divide between urban and rural areas.
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Other companies in the sector have also revealed their plans for network expansion and increasing 5G connectivity.
Operators that secured spectrum in the March 2022 auction are expected to use some of it to connect rural areas and zero-rate some public benefit site, as part of the social obligations imposed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).
Vodacom has previously raised concerns that the proposed 20-year obligation to zero-rate public benefit sites may have “unintended consequences”. The company has already filed a submission to the regulator detailing its issues with some of the social obligations, which it said would “have a material impact on our rural access connectivity strategy”.
The company’s plan to add new 3G sites comes as the government has come up with a proposal to retire the technology by 30 March 2025. Some network operators have called for industry-wide consultation on the plan to end the use of the older generation of wireless technologies. Telkom has described the plan to shut down the 3G network as unrealistic.
The proposed date for 2G network disconnection is 30 June 2024.
Source: News 24
