Vumacam, the security camera company 51% owned by FibreCo – the parent of Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa – has announced plans to expand its presence in Gauteng’s sprawling East Rand.
The company said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the City of Ekurhuleni to deploy poles and cameras across the region. It has agreed “all regulatory, power and technical obligations” required by the metro.
Until now, Vumacam has focused mainly on deploying infrastructure in Johannesburg and parts of Pretoria, but the East Rand is a lucrative market opportunity for the company.
The announcement about the planned expansion comes just days after Pieter Uys, chairman of FibreCo parent CIVH told investors that Vumacam’s camera poles provide and ideal opportunity to deploy next-generation 5G broadband to South African consumers.
“Vumacam’s infrastructure could be developed into tower opportunities,” Uys said, adding that growing demand from mobile operators, which is expected to surge in the coming years as 5G is rolled out, could drive this opportunity.
‘Vital part’
About 3 000 of Vumacam’s camera poles are suitable to be converted into mobile base stations, Uys said. These have power and fibre and a box to store radio equipment and “can be monetised at some point”, he said.
Commenting in a statement of the company’s Ekurhuleni expansion plan, Vumacam CEO Ricky Croock said: “This will form a vital part of expanding our Gauteng network, which has been successful in detecting, preventing and investigating criminal activity across the areas our technology covers. We are grateful for the City of Ekurhuleni’s commitment to ensuring that the MoU guides our future processes.”
Vumacam has poles and live cameras in 26 suburbs in Ekurhuleni and will deploy an additional 600 cameras “in the next few months”. – © 2022 NewsCentral Media
