Vodacom points to progress, ups network capacity

At its annual results presentation earlier this year, the group announced that it would be spending more than R6 billion enhancing its network in South Africa.

The company also committed to a longer term target of doubling the number of 3G base stations on the network.

Chief technology officer Andries Delport said: "Increasing network capacity and signal coverage has been a major focus and since the beginning of the year, we've added over 250 new 3G base stations. Additional capacity has also been added by upgrading 2,335 base stations to more efficient double-speed 43.2mbps technology. Our overall aim is to continue upgrading and improving the network in order to give all our customers a good data experience."

In addition to increasing network capacity, Vodacom said that it had initiated software upgrades on equipment that transmitted and received data via optic fibres; while several actions were taken to improve the overall voice quality on the network.

The replacement of all base station equipment was also completed in Gauteng, with KwaZulu Natal and Limpopo currently in progress, and the Western and Eastern Cape and other regions set to follow. "The main reason for the replacement of the base stations is to enable a seamless migration to new technologies such as LTE in future, without having to replace any equipment," Vodacom said.

The new equipment was also more environmentally friendly, used less power and improved network performance, the group said.

Vodacom stressed that its project to connect 2,000 base stations with fibre by the end of the financial year was also progressing.

Vodacom said it had also studied usage patterns to better understand the causes of congestion at peak times, "and one surprising finding was that more than 95% of BlackBerry data usage was attributable to less than 5% of users".

"We need to ensure that all BlackBerry users are able to enjoy the service that they pay for. When we realised that such a small minority was using the bulk of the capacity, we decided to implement measures that will ensure that Blackberry users will enjoy a better browsing experience overall," Delport said.

Vodacom said it had taken steps to ensure that the 95% of the BlackBerry users who were currently using the service fairly were not impacted by those who were "abusing" the service. "The 5% of the base who are not using the service for what it was intended will have their connection speed reduced from 3G to 2G levels," Vodacom said.