Local cellular providers have experienced some disruption to their networks as construction on SA's roads speeds up in time for the Soccer World Cup.
SA expects about 350 000 visitors for the games in mid-year, and key transport linkages such as the Gautrain and freeways around the country are being prepared for the event.
Vodacom says the construction work has resulted in some damage to backhaul network infrastructure, optic fibre rings and third-party network links, which were damaged during road constructions.
A spokesman says the time needed to fix the damage depends on the extent of the disruption, but usually takes a few hours to repair.
“As far as possible, we have a redundant network, and traffic is rerouted via a secondary route, should the primary route be damaged in cases where a redundant route is available,” says Vodacom.
While the destruction to the cables usually only impacts a small portion of traffic, Vodacom says on rare occasions, a larger proportion of subscribers are affected.
Minor issues
Cell C says disruptions to its network have not been significant. Dennis Abella, executive head of operations, says the company's fibre cable facility is outsourced to a third party and a detailed service level agreement is in place to ensure service is immediately restored.
The cellular firm says the amount of people any disruption affects depends on the nature of the damage.
MTN SA CTO Sameer Dave says the operator has not experienced any disruption from the construction of roads.
Improved communications
Once all the construction on SA's highways and byways comes to an end, South Africans should be able to benefit from an improved network, as all the cellular operators are investing in new technology for the games.
MTN has spent millions on the upgrade of the network which now covers 98% of SA, to ensure its subscribers enjoy quality service - whether voice or data - during the World Cup, and beyond, says Dave.
The company has been installing equipment and upgrading the systems within all the World Cup stadiums, so that fans within each stadium, and everyone else living and working around these venues, will experience a world-class, quality service throughout the event.
MTN has enhanced network coverage at all 10 of the Fifa-approved stadiums. The company is also rolling out HSPA+ for areas that are expected to experience high traffic volumes during the tournament.
Vodacom is deploying HSPA+, an evolution of 3G, in selected areas and its Midrand site is live. So far, the company has upgraded the equipment at five of the 10 stadiums and tested four stadiums during the Confederations Cup in June 2009. The remaining stadiums will be upgraded in time for the 2010 games.
National transmission capacity is also being increased with the laying of fibre-optic rings nationally. The construction of 11 fibre-optic rings in major metropolitan areas, to interconnect mobile switching centres and base station controller sites nationally, will increase local bandwidth capacity.
Ten of the 11 Vodacom fibre-optic rings, in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town, are already live and carrying network traffic.
In addition, a fibre-optic ring to connect Johannesburg and Durban is also being completed. Vodacom, MTN and Neotel are working together to save costs on laying this cable, to increase national capacity.
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