Vodacom is planning extensive network augmentation over the coming year, including the addition of over 550 long -term evolution (LTE) sites in Gauteng - 415 more than it erected in the past year to March.
The LTE site growth, as well as the introduction of another 180 2G sites and 240 3G sites in Gauteng, is part of the operator's R9 billion national network upgrade planned for the 2014/2015 year. If all goes according to plan, this year will see 555 more Vodacom LTE sites in Gauteng - 102 of which the operator plans to complete in April alone. LTE sites in April alone. Vodacom will need to rollout about 20 sites a day to reach its grand total.
Over the past year (March 2013 to March 2014) Vodacom spent R7 billion on its national network, and added 281 2G sites, 471 3G sites and 140 LTE sites in Gauteng.
According to Neville van Niekerk, Vodacom's managing executive for Gauteng, the province generates the most amount of traffic in SA. "Gauteng probably carries about 60% of the traffic in SA, so that is where most investment needs to take place."
Over the past year Gauteng has generated about 30 billion minutes (2G and 3G voice), 20 petabytes of data (2G, 3G and LTE combined) and seen a 77% surge in data traffic - 2% more than the national average.
"If you compare the year-on-year data traffic growth to the growth in voice, which is sitting at that is sitting at 13% year-on-year, it is clear why Vodacom needs to be ahead of the game," says van Niekerk.
Micromanagement
Van Niekerk says, by aggressively rolling out LTE sites, pressure on its 2G and 3G voice networks will be considerably lifted as migration of data to LTE will free up capacity.
Conceding that there has been a deterioration in voice call quality over recent months, van Niekerk offers assurance that the situation will get better - not worse.
A lack of spectrum (due to government's dithering on spectrum allocation) presents a challenge to operators offering LTE to consumers. In both Vodacom and MTN's case, spectrum is being refarmed. Vodacom is refarming 5MHz of its spectrum in the 1.8GHz frequency band.
This is not ideal, says van Niekerk, as it is a burden on Vodacom's 900MHz band. "We have to micromanage the network - I won't kid you."
He says, however, in terms of the current LTE customers Vodacom has on board, its capacity is not currently restricted.
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