Over R500 million will be spent over a two-month period by Vodacom to improve its network capacity and resilience during the lockdown period and to help cope with any possible load-shedding.<\/p>\n
This includes accelerating the installation of smart energy management solutions and supplementary network capacity, the company said.<\/p>\n
\u201cVodacom\u2019s priority is ensuring that all possible measures are in place to support South Africa\u2019s efforts to combat the outbreak of COVID-19,\u201d said Vodacom Group CTO Andries Delport.<\/p>\n
Essential services<\/strong><\/p>\n Vodacom said it has received permits from the government which enable its field teams to continue performing critical duties during the lockdown.<\/p>\n These include repairs and upgrades to key communications infrastructure.<\/p>\n Vodacom also welcomed the directive issued by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies which proposes the temporary allocation of currently unused spectrum.<\/p>\n Vodacom has applied to ICASA for temporary spectrum and is still awaiting the evaluation of its application.<\/p>\n Network stability<\/strong><\/p>\n Vodacom said that it has not experienced any major network outages since the lockdown began at midnight on Thursday 26 March.<\/p>\n Delport said that Vodacom is doing everything within its power to ensure it maintains its network service quality during this unique period despite substantial increases in traffic.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d said Delport.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue to increase our network investment spend to manage the extraordinary traffic increases in the short term.\u201d<\/p>\n The company added that it expects network traffic to increase even further because of its\u00a0data price cuts<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of up to 40% which were launched on 1 April.<\/p>\n It also launched a range of free essential services which are available through its zero-rated ConnectU platform.<\/p>\n This article was first published on MyBroadband. You can read the original here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
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