Communication during World Cup kept going

"There was a huge surge in network traffic during the World Cup and in some cases the traffic on a single base station increased by more than 500%. We were determined to not only meet the increased traffic demands, but also reconcile the varying needs and call patterns of foreign and local subscribers," said Andries Delport, executive director, network and information technology, Vodacom South Africa.

"From the preparation phase to the conclusion of the games, SES support guaranteed high network quality. We thank the company for its excellent professional and proactive support to ensure uninterrupted services for our subscribers."

"A sudden increase in traffic during major events puts huge pressure on mobile networks, and can cause congestion, revenue losses and customer dissatisfaction," said Paul Divall, Vodacom South Africa customer team head at Nokia Siemens Networks. "With our experience in helping operators maintain excellent network and service performance under extreme traffic conditions, we established the most efficient way to maintain the network for our client."

During the preparation phase, NSN provided capacity forecasting and optimization services to ensure network readiness across event hotspots such as stadiums, fan parks and airports. During the event, a parallel Network Operations Centre (NOC) was set up to monitor the operator's multi-vendor radio access network, transmission network, and service delivery across these hotspots. It also established processes related to event set up, and risk and crisis management, in addition to reviewing operational readiness on a regular basis.