Calling for a better connection

Vodacom will be upping their game to cater for the growing needs of Ilembe residents.

At a community briefing held in Stanger last week, network heads outlined their plans for the district, announcing that 14 network base stations are planned for Ilembe and five for KwaDukuza by next year.

This is meant to improve call quality and data connectivity from urban to rural areas in the district.

Vodacom executive head of department for the consumer business unit Takalani Netshitenzhe, said their aim was to work toward a more digitally connected nation and assured residents that their reported problems were being addressed.

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“Mobile connectivity has changed our lives and data makes it all the more interesting because you can connect with people from all over the world.

“The mobile community boom started almost two decades ago and previously rural areas were left behind. We are now expanding the rollout to make sure that everyone is connected.

“There are a lot of investments especially in KZN with the building of our base stations and maintaining what was there already. Every time we get complaints we listen and we respond. To improve connectivity, we have supplied more base stations.

“In the past financial year for Vodacom, we put up 15 new base stations in KwaDukuza and we have invested over a billion rand in KZN alone. This investment has made sure that we have better 3G and 4G coverage.”

Discussing some of the challenges of the network, Netshitenzhe said there had been a seven percent growth in basic model phones which congested the network, impacting on the overall quality for all users.

Network infrastructure vandalism is still an area of concern and Netshitenzhe appealed to residents to report such incidents.

“This actually is a disadvantage to the greater community in that we spend millions to build one base station and if that station is broken into and the batteries are stolen then that area will not have connectivity. Usually, the people will say the network is bad because the community does not know that the base station in their area has been vandalised and it takes us a couple of days to fix. We need our communities to help us to make sure that infrastructure developments are protected.”

KwaDukuza deputy mayor Dolly Govender highlighted cellphone theft as a huge concern in Stanger.

She urged Vodacom to provide more safety and security education.

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