Telecommunications group Vodacom Eastern Cape region is injecting more than R500-million to expand connectivity in deep rural areas and townships that had no connectivity before.

The bulk of the capital expenditure for the 2023/24 financial year will be used to deploy new base station sites, improve network capacity, perform power backup upgrades, in light of power outages, and deploy fifth-generation (5G) to accelerate digital inclusion.

The group will build 106 new deep rural sites in Buffalo City, Matatiele, Mbashe, Mnquma, Nelson Mandela Bay, Ngqushwa, Ngquza Hill, Ntabankulu and Port St Johns, besides other local municipalities.

Further, long-term evolution capacity expansions will be undertaken at 396 sites and 17 new urban sites will be deployed across the province.

Vodacom, which switched live its 5G mobile network in three major municipal districts in the Eastern Cape in 2021, plans to deploy more than 50 new 5G sites in the region.

“It is important for us to invest in the next generation of communication technology to give our customers access to networks that provide faster speeds and support the digital economy,” said Vodacom Eastern Cape region managing executive Zakhele Jiyane.

The accelerated investment in 5G in this financial year is in line with Vodacom’s commitment to connect the unconnected and help bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural areas of the province, he continued.

Jiyane further highlighted the strides in making data prices and smart devices more affordable, leading to growth in the number of smart devices and a 40% increase in data traffic in the province.

Vodacom’s customer consideration scores, including Net Promotor Score, have increased, with customers scoring Vodacom better on measures such as value for money as they see the overall value provided, from service to network to price, he commented.

“The latest biannual network report by the independent benchmarking organisation umlaut, part of Accenture, has ranked Vodacom ‘Best in Test’ ahead of competitors and scored the highest for reliability, data services and crowd-sourced quality.”

Meanwhile, Vodacom Eastern Cape’s enterprise business unit is also working with the Department of Basic Education to deploy information and communication technology (ICT) platforms in government schools to support access to quality education.

As part of the transversal contract, the region helped to digitalise over 2 000 health community workers, connected over 120 000 smart meters in several municipalities and supported close to 3 000 government vehicles with Internet of Things solutions that helped to keep costs down and improved efficiencies.

Vodacom continues to accelerate its investment in education through ICT centres in schools, teacher centres, schools of excellence and e-school platforms, as well as establishing early childhood development centres to improve education in the early years and rolling out Vodacom’s #CodeLikeAGirl programme aimed at developing coding skills among girls.

In addition, the company is providing the KwaNobuhle Lovelife Youth Centre, which attracts more than 5 000 youths, with uncapped Internet wireless connectivity to connect the youth at the centre free.