Vodacom SA is stepping up the pace of roll-out of higher-speed 3G base stations. Ahead of the soccer World Cup, the company has upgraded 140 of its wireless towers to the latest iteration of 3G, offering theoretical download speeds of up to 21,6Mbit/s.

The operator has sped up the deployment of evolved high-speed packet access (HSPA+) infrastructure ahead of the kick-off of the World Cup on 11 June.

Vodacom Group CEO Pieter Uys says Vodacom now has 3 342 active 3G high sites, all offering theoretical download speeds of up to 14,4Mbit/s. In practice, the speeds are lower. At some sites, Vodacom has not yet built the necessary backhaul links to provide speeds at the maximum possible.

Uys says Vodacom subscribers in HSPA+ coverage areas can expect download speeds of about 10Mbit/s. However, they’ll need a new modem capable of using HSPA+.

The additional investment by Vodacom comes on top of news on Monday that the operator has signed up 1,1m broadband users — defined as anyone who subscribes to a broadband data bundle. Data traffic over Vodacom’s network has increased by 58% in the past year, driven by a sharp rise in data card card users and people using smartphones. Vodacom has more than 2m smartphones active on its network, Uys says.

The company has also stepped up its investment in fibre infrastructure, and has laid 1 000km of fibre to its own base stations. Previously, the company was reliant solely on Telkom to provide fibre to its towers. Uys says the fibre deployment to base stations will continue for the foreseeable future as growth in demand for broadband shows no signs of slowing down.

There’s also still strong demand for older, 2G-based data technology. Uys says Vodacom is still enjoying strong growth in older GPRS and Edge data services and is investing heavily in expanding its Edge coverage in the eastern side of SA, including in Gauteng where Edge coverage is still spotty. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral