Vodacom will provide R500 million to the Western Cape’s increased connectivity

Vodacom has revealed some of its connectivity-related ambitions for the Western Cape for the upcoming year.

To achieve this, the telecommunications provider plans to invest more than R500 million in the province over the course of the remaining year of 2022 in order to address network uptime, capacity growth, and coverage reach.

In a press release sent to Hypertext, Carol Hall, managing executive for Vodacom Western Cape, stated, “We believe investing in our network ensures that we deliver best-in-class coverage and customer service, not only to urban areas but to people who dwell in the township and deep rural areas as well. So they are well-positioned to take advantage of the benefits of the Digital Revolution.”

Because of this, she continues, “we are spending more money on the network to install more sites in the urban, township, and remote locations that did not previously have network connectivity and to continue to provide outstanding customer experiences for all of our customers.”

Hall points out that 4G is the priority for this recently announced investment in terms of the connection the network provider would concentrate on, with an estimated 90% of traffic in the area being on that mobile broadband standard.

Nine additional sites will be added as a result of the current investment, albeit it is unclear which precise deep-rural locations. According to Vodacom, 450 base stations already cover rural areas in the province, linking 247 townships.

Vodacom has responded to this by moving some of its mobile generators to its remote service regions in order to hasten restoration in the case of power outages brought on by load shedding or vandalism.

Our goal is to create an inclusive digital society that leaves no one behind, especially in the increasingly digitalized post-COVID environment. Widespread coverage is one approach to guarantee that everyone can access the internet, but Vodacom also works to provide high-quality coverage to enable an equitable network experience for all of our customers, whether they live in urban or rural areas, Hall said.