Vodacom Western Cape plans to spend over R500 million on the mobile network across the province during this year to grow coverage reach, increase capacity and improve network uptime. This significant investment into the network will help the region expand connectivity in urban spaces, deep rural areas and townships that had little or no connectivity before and enable more communities to reap the benefits of highly reliable internet connectivity.
The investment forms part of the company’s commitment to building a digitally inclusive society, where increased access to online essential services and information, employment and education platforms, digital marketplaces, and much more can help to promote socio-economic empowerment and close the digital divide.
Vodacom’s network investment of more than R1.5 billion in the past three years in the Western Cape has allowed the telco to switch on 38 new sites and upgrade over 75% of their existing 1.659 base stations with 4G capacity last year. Of last year’s site builds, 16 were in townships, with six built-in rural towns and deep rural areas in the province. The current investment will see a further nine sites added in deep rural areas. To date, 450 base stations provide coverage to rural areas, with 247 connecting townships in the province. Ongoing investments have provided 98% of the Western Cape’s population with 3G coverage, with 96% of the region’s citizens enjoying 4G coverage.
Vodacom Western Cape’s network investment is a forward-looking one, with 5G connectivity another focus area. At present, the telco has 49 5G base stations across the region, with plans to triple this footprint across the region this year. 5G connectivity will deliver even greater benefits, supporting more widespread use of technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and Software-Defined Wide-Area Networking. For businesses, in particular, 5G has the potential to unlock data-driven productivity that will fuel our economy.
Ensuring excellent consistent network quality for voice and data services is no small feat, with all operators needing to put measures in place to keep customers connected during load-shedding. Vodacom recently installed power backup batteries at 240 sites in the Western Cape.