Several South African communities are up in arms over the placement of new iBurst base stations in their neighbourhoods.
The company says it has been informed of objections to the installations, and has contracted consultants that generally deal with the trouble. Communities are concerned that erecting base stations near residential areas could affect health and reduce home values.
While the company did not specifically refer to the recent complaints, it says: “From time to time, we have experienced objections to installing a base station in a particular area. All objections are handled by the consultants and there have been times when we have been unable to come to an agreement,” the company explains.
iBurst says that when this happens, it begins the process of finding a new site to put up its tower. Locating high-sites is a notorious industry problem, and even companies like Neotel find it difficult to secure space for a new base station.
Placing a base station is also a lengthy process. “The average time for a new site is +/-18 months; however, we start the process way in advance to make sure we have sites at all times to accommodate the business need. We are also finding that in some cases we are unable to secure the land for a particular base station site, which increases the time frame and prolongs the process,” adds iBurst.
The company says there are several procedural and regulatory aspects that need to be taken into account. “Placement of a base station on a particular site is first done by our planning engineers who have to - among other considerations - take the geographics of the land into consideration for the optimum coverage.”
iBurst has been on a customer push over the last few months, offering new packages and service access.
The company has upped its marketing for the sale of its WiMax solution for SMEs. The company says it has installed 200 base stations in the major metro areas, with plans to expand the network to 280 by the end of this year, just for this service.
iBurst also has to compete with any company providing wireless solutions for space on high sites. All the mobile providers, as well as Neotel and now Telkom, provide wireless offerings, which require base stations with optimum coverage.
While being turned away from possible high sites can be an expensive problem, iBurst says it plans well in advance, taking the issue into account, to minimise business impact.
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