As telecommunications giant MTN South Africa accelerates its nationwide modernisation programme, the company has achieved a record 98.33% daily network availability in Limpopo.

The 2024 resilience plan, which was completed in the first quarter of the year, aims to ensure there is backup power, such as batteries or hybrid generators, on hub sites to minimise network unavailability during loadshedding, load reduction and extended power failures.

The roll-out in the province and across South Africa has led to improved throughput and availability, reduced drop call rates and increased data volumes, says MTN South Africa acting regional GM Isaac Monama.

During 2023, MTN South Africa deployed R10.1-billion in capital expenditure to drive network capacity expansion and power resilience.

More than R2.6-billion of this amount was invested in power and security resilience as 2023 experienced more intense power outages, with a total of 335 loadshedding days, compared with 205 in 2022.

By the end of the year, network availability had improved significantly across the entire network, reaching 95% ahead of schedule. Network availability for sites where the resilience investment had been completed had surpassed 98%.

“Overall network availability [in Limpopo] has improved by 27.18% since the start of the resilience programme, compared with last year. Sites with resilience have a network availability of greater than 97% under Stage 4 loadshedding.”

The aim now is to end 2024 with a network availability of 96% under Stage 6 loadshedding and greater than 99% under Stage 2 loadshedding.

In Limpopo, fourth-generation (4G) population coverage reached 99.41% and MTN activated 56 fifth-generation (5G) sites across the province during 2023, with plans to add another 60 5G sites to the network in 2024.

“MTN is committed to expanding its network to underserved communities and aims to achieve 95% broadband coverage by 2025,” Monama continues.