South Africa announced that it’s planning on boosting radio spectrum for its operators to avoid network breakdown amid an upcoming lockdown set to last for three weeks to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The South African regulator is looking into ways to provide telecom operators with more capacity. “This is in anticipation of a sharp increase in data and voice services during the period, and to try and ease congestion,” said Paseka Maleka, spokesman of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.
Spectrum has been one of the obstacles operators were facing in South Africa since 2005, the year when the government granted additional spectrum to Vodacom and MTN to roll out 3G.
Both telecom operators – MTN and Vodacom – have introduced measures to help their subscribers amid this health crisis work and study from home. They have cut down prices and offered free services to facilitate services like online education.
