Vodacom said on Wednesday that it has “significantly accelerated” investment in its network in South Africa in recent weeks to cater for rapidly growing demand for mobile and fixed Internet access during the national Covid-19 lockdown.
“Over R500-million will be spent over a two-month period to add network capacity and increase network resilience during the lockdown period and to help cope with any possible load shedding,” it said in a statement.
“This includes accelerating the installation of smart energy management solutions and supplementary network capacity.”
Vodacom said it expects network traffic to increase further as customers connect for longer after it implemented price cuts of up to 40% on its 30-day data bundles and launched a range of free essential services available through its zero-rated ConnectU platform on 1 April.
Telecommunications has been classified by the South African government as an essential service in the Disaster Management Act and must continue operating during the lockdown.
“Vodacom has secured permits from government to enable its field teams to continue performing their critical duties during this time, such as repairs and upgrades to key communications infrastructure. Vodacom has also ordered spare parts needed for maintenance in advance,” it said.
Spectrum relief
It added that it has applied for temporary spectrum relief from communications regulator Icasa. The authority is expected to announce later this week how it intends allocating spectrum on an emergency basis.
“Prior to the lockdown, traffic typically peaked during certain hours of the day, but Vodacom is now experiencing sustained peak traffic patterns for almost the entire day as South Africans are dependent on the network to stay in touch, work from home and keep entertained.”
“We are monitoring all traffic patterns daily and prioritising key network upgrades to add capacity and maintain the quality of services delivered to our customers where required,” said group chief technology officer Andries Delport in the statement. “We are hopeful that we will be able to gain temporary access to spectrum to enable additional capacity to be added in the quickest and most cost-effective manner as traffic increases further.” — © 2020 NewsCentral Media
