Vodacom struggles with failures
Economic Growth and rapid infrastructure development in the Middelburg and eMalahleni region has outpaced the rate at which Vodacom can keep up with as the Services Provider continues to struggle with meeting demand.
The latest major network failure continued for the first three weeks of May before stabilizing this week, and affected thousands of Vodacom subscribers who notably vented anger on days on which massive promotions such as one day only free 1 Gig data bundles were inaccessible due to unreliable signal.
On social media many described the Vodacom signal as “terrible, if any”, and complained of dropped calls, endless call failed messages, and have permanent internet connectivity problems.
And when connection is eventually made, calls automatically cut off after about five to ten seconds, or the line is of a very poor quality, broken and eventually dies off.
Many predicted that the promotional Free Data on 11 May would crash the network and this was true as it was unable to handle the load and in the end very few actually received or made use of this “gift”.
In a statement issued to the Middelburg Observer this week, Vodacom Mpumalanga Managing Executive, Louisa van Beek, stated that “exponential economic growth in the area and the infrastructure development that goes with that, it is unfortunate that the fibre cable in some cases becomes a casualty.”
She added that Vodacom also experienced high incidents of theft and vandalism at base stations sites over the last few weeks, which was still in the process of “getting under control with the support of local police services.”
Van Beek stated that with the growth requirements for the area Vodacom has still managed to bring into service 14 additional new sites in the Middelburg and eMahlaleni area in the past two months alone.
“To address capacity constraints, seven of these are LTE sites. LTE (Long Term Evolution) is technology that provides even faster speed than 3G. Furthermore we have another four sites currently under construction. This year alone, in excess of R9 Billion will be invested in the upgrade of our infrastructure. This huge investment in infrastructure ensures that we continually improve our network so as to ensure that our customers get the best calling experience that we have committed to delivering to them.
“For customers experiencing further network issues, please contact Vodacom Customer Care on 082 191.”
