A prominent South African mobile communications company is working to ensure access to connectivity in deep rural areas in the Free State and Northern Cape.
To achieve this, Vodacom announced its investment of more than R400 million this financial year, aimed at strengthening its network capacity and accelerating access to connectivity. The announcement was made during the media roundtable held on 19 June.
Investment in connectivity entails more than 30 new deep rural sites across the region.
“This is an investment totalling over R1 billion over three years, and it is part of Vodacom’s long-term vision. Many of the communities in the region had access to the internet for the first time following our network expansion effort last year,” said Evah Mthimunye, managing executive in the central region.
She said work entailed expanding broadband coverage and funding network improvements.
“From this expenditure, R250 million will go towards projects for radio access network, and R150 million to fund transmission that includes the roll-out of microwave connections and fibre optic cables for network capacity and upgrades. This roll-out will enable better connectivity and improved network speeds for the end user.”
Rural areas earmarked in the Free State are in the Thabo Mofutsanyana and Xhariep districts.
To keep customers connected, Mthimunye said the company was investing more than R120 million into energy projects, including the procurement of generators and increasing base station site power standby time.
“These upgrades will improve network capacity and availability, particularly during stage 4 to stage 6 load shedding,” she said.
