Vodacom says it will invest R180 million in the Western Cape province to expand coverage, increase network capacity and speed.<\/p>\n
In late 2013, the company embarked on a programme called Project Spring to accelerate investment in its network across the country. Over the past year alone, it resulted in Vodacom increasing the number of 3G sites by more than 20% to almost 9,000, and more than doubling the number of LTE\/4G sites to 2,600.<\/p>\n
Aberts Breed, Vodacom\u2019s newly appointed managing executive for the Western Cape province said: “This year we\u2019re planning to add 434 radio base station sites, comprising of 91 2G sites, 193 3G and more than 150 LTE\/4G sites.<\/p>\n
“On a practical basis, this means that we\u2019ll be bringing faster data services to tens of thousands of people who currently only have voice services and EDGE data services. On top of this, the upgrade will increase network capacity, provide improved voice quality and enhanced mobile data speeds in outlying areas such as Vermont, Kleinmond, Veldrift, Saldanha, Gansbaai Town, Koringberg and Hopefield by the end of March 2016.”<\/p>\n
Radio base stations<\/strong> are sites that enable mobile phones to work. They can be big or small and have transmitters and receivers in a cabin or cabinet connected to antennas. They can be mounted on a large mast or tower, an existing building, rooftops or street lamps.<\/p>\n By March next year and the through the 2015\/2016 network investment programme, Vodacom Western Cape will have a total of 1,205 2G sites, 1,166 3G sites and 631 LTE sites, Vodacom said.<\/p>\n In addition to the major increase in investment in base stations, Vodacom will also be ramping up investment in the core network.<\/p>\n \u201cThe base stations are what we call the radio access network, and its key role is to connect to people\u2019s mobile devices. The core network is more like the brains at the centre of Vodacom that is responsible for routing traffic and making sure that everything functions smoothly,\u201d said Breed.<\/p>\n Data growth in township areas of Western Cape has more than doubled year on year as more people are buying affordable smartphones and tablets, which they use to access data services, Vodacom said.<\/p>\n To this end, the group said it is rolling out sites in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu and Langa to help give residents better connectivity on their devices.<\/p>\n Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom on data expiry<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Vodacom has a solution for network catastrophes<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nMore on Vodacom<\/h3>\n