Siyabonga Sesant
Telecommunications giant Vodacom says it will invest more than half a billion rand in its Eastern Cape operations.
This significant investment into the network is for expanded connectivity in deep rural areas and township that had no connectivity before, thus enabling hundreds of thousands of people to participate in the digital economy for the first time.
Managing Executive for Vodacom Eastern Cape, Zakhele Jiyane, said the bulk of the capital expenditure will be used to deploy new base stations sites, improve network capacity, and roll out 5G to accelerate digital inclusion.
As a result, 106 new deep rural sites will be built in many Eastern Cape municipalities, including Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City, Port St Johns and Matatiele.
He said LTE capacity expansions will be performed in 396 sites and 17 new urban sites will be deployed across the province.
The Region switched on live 5G mobile network in three major municipal districts in the Eastern Cape in 2021 and plans to accelerate this deployment by rolling out over 50 new 5G sites.
"We have always maintained that our mobile networks are our key differentiator, and as a result, we continue to invest more money to expand networks to give our customers exceptional service.
“It is important for us to invest in the next generation of communication technology to give our customers access to networks that provide faster speeds and support the digital economy.
“Therefore, our accelerated investment in 5G in this financial year is in line with our commitment to connect the unconnected and will ultimately help the region bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural areas of the province,” said Jiyane.
“It can no longer be acceptable for people in rural dwellers to watch the internet revolution from the sidelines, they need to be part of it and reap the associated economic benefits.
“We mean serious business when we say that rural and township areas should have the same network experience such as the people who reside in urban areas are accustomed.”
Jiyane said money will also be spent on power back-up upgrades across the province due to power outages.
