Driving digital inclusion, Vodacom Eastern Cape will spend R500-million this financial year on modernising its network, energy projects, and accelerating broadband coverage across the region – particularly in townships and deep rural areas of the province.
The bulk of the expenditure will go towards modernising the network infrastructure followed by deploying new network sites, rolling out 5G network, and launching new LTE coverage utilising allotted spectrum from ICASA. This rollout will enable better connectivity and improved network speeds for customers.
The regional office plans to focus this investment on the three bays of the Eastern Cape footprint. This includes Lower Bay (Gqeberha to Makhanda and the Port Alfred area); Central Bay (sites along the N10 and surroundings); and Upper Bay (Qonce, Monti and up to the Kei Mouth area) – bridging the digital divide between urban and rural areas of the province.
“Our approach is to first build on our infrastructure to ensure that we can unlock the many opportunities afforded by the latest technology – such as 5G – and deliver a quality network experience for all our customers,” says Zakhele Jiyane, managing executive for Vodacom Eastern Cape Region. “In some areas of the province, this investment will bring connectivity to communities for the first time and will drive our ambition of empowering people in an inclusive digital society.
“One of the main focus areas for the region this financial year is to deploy more sites in deep rural areas of the Eastern Cape,” Jiyane adds. “Many individuals in South Africa’s remote, deep rural areas lack Internet access, which prevents them from taking advantage of the socioeconomic advantages of connectivity. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the effects of the digital divide to light in dramatic ways as people without broadband have been unable to work from home, attend classes, or receive healthcare services.
“The deployment of the new base station sites in deep rural areas of the province will close the digital divide and enable hundreds of thousands of people in these villages to be part of the digital economy and reap associated socio-economic benefits,” he says.