The rise of low-cost smartphones in South Africa is creating a new market of opportunity for local mobile operators and Vodacom is chomping at the bit to capitalise on it.
According to a City Press report, Vodacom is in the process of testing shipping-container base stations as a means to meet a growing demand for mobile data in Gauteng townships – almost double that of the national rate.
The number of smartphones and tablets in use on the network increased by 24% to 9,5 million last year, with the average person using 358MB of data per month.
“We’re seeing data volumes in Gauteng’s townships almost doubling year-on-year, which is well ahead of the average growth rate countrywide,” Vodacom’s Chief Technology Officer Andries Delport told the newspaper.
Capitalising on the high demand, he says, has in the past proved challenging because of security concerns.
“Identifying and building new sites to cater for these densely populated areas has been difficult and on top of that, site security can be an issue,” he says.
So, to overcome the challenges Vodacom engineers went back to the proverbial drawing board to develop a suitable time and cost effective approach for a structure.
“They repackaged the base station equipment inside a compact steel structure that is then bolted to the roof of existing shipping container shops. This means new sites can be rolled out quite literally within weeks as opposed to the typical 12- to 18-month lead time to build new base stations,” he said.
The container base stations cost significantly less to build than traditional stations, don’t take up as much space and are also more energy-efficient.
Delport says Vodacom will pilot five sites around Gauteng, with the first station to be tested in Alexandra.
The test sites will provide mobile coverage over a 1,5km radius and will be able to service around 5 000 subscribers during peak times.
Small business owners running a business from containers, he says, will also benefit from the innovation.
“With a base station located on their roof, we’ll support the shop with an additional source of income and they in turn provide us with added site security,” he says.
Source: City Press
According to a City Press report, Vodacom is in the process of testing shipping-container base stations as a means to meet a growing demand for mobile data in Gauteng townships – almost double that of the national rate.
The number of smartphones and tablets in use on the network increased by 24% to 9,5 million last year, with the average person using 358MB of data per month.
“We’re seeing data volumes in Gauteng’s townships almost doubling year-on-year, which is well ahead of the average growth rate countrywide,” Vodacom’s Chief Technology Officer Andries Delport told the newspaper.
Capitalising on the high demand, he says, has in the past proved challenging because of security concerns.
“Identifying and building new sites to cater for these densely populated areas has been difficult and on top of that, site security can be an issue,” he says.
So, to overcome the challenges Vodacom engineers went back to the proverbial drawing board to develop a suitable time and cost effective approach for a structure.
“They repackaged the base station equipment inside a compact steel structure that is then bolted to the roof of existing shipping container shops. This means new sites can be rolled out quite literally within weeks as opposed to the typical 12- to 18-month lead time to build new base stations,” he said.
The container base stations cost significantly less to build than traditional stations, don’t take up as much space and are also more energy-efficient.
Delport says Vodacom will pilot five sites around Gauteng, with the first station to be tested in Alexandra.
The test sites will provide mobile coverage over a 1,5km radius and will be able to service around 5 000 subscribers during peak times.
Small business owners running a business from containers, he says, will also benefit from the innovation.
“With a base station located on their roof, we’ll support the shop with an additional source of income and they in turn provide us with added site security,” he says.
Source: City Press
