Vodacom announced it will increase investment into the Free State and Northern Cape provinces in South Africa, a move to boost capacity and resilience particularly in rural areas.
In a statement, Vodacom detailed that it will invest over ZAR 400 million into those regions that it defined as Vodacom Central Region, an increase from ZAR 340 million in full year 2022/23.
From the ZAR 400 million cash injection, ZAR 250 million will go towards projects for radio access network, while ZAR150 million will go to fund transmission which includes the roll out of microwave and fibre for network capacity, and upgrades in the current financial year.
As part of the deployment, 30 new deep rural sites will be rolled out across the regions this financial year to serve people that live in underserved areas. More 5G sites will also be deployed.
ZAR 120 million will be used to buy generators and increase base station site power standby time. These upgrades will improve network capacity and availability, particularly during stage 4-6 loadshedding.
This deployment will result in improved network speed and signal for end users, Vodacom stated.
The operator noted it invested over ZAR 1 billion in over three years in the Vodacom Central Region. In this location, the 3G population coverage stood at 99.% and 98.2% for 4G.
“We are investing heavily in the network in the Free State and Northern Cape in order to achieve our goal of building an inclusive digital society,” said Evah Mthimunye, managing executive of Vodacom Central Region.