ikeja steps up to the plate during COVID-19 usage surge with help from eNetworks

ikeja Wireless – an Internet service provider (ISP) that delivers high quality, cost-effective Internet access services to township communities around South Africa – has ensured it can cater for the surge in usage during the lockdown period, with the help of ISP and network specialist, eNetworks, a Datacentrix company.

“With the outbreak of COVID-19, we knew that we were going to have to move fast to get the additional needed capacity in place,” explains Conrad Minnaar, Head of Networks at ikeja Wireless. “As we entered the lockdown period, the company has had to react in real-time to bandwidth ceilings being hit. This has meant that our own teams have been under immense pressure to roll-out last-minute installations and infrastructure upgrades.

“In fact, within one day, a single segment saw two significant upgrades take place within hours of one another.”

Since the start of the lockdown, ikeja has seen a 25% increase in its total national bandwidth utilisation. Firm in the belief that every South African deserves the right to easy access to the Internet, ikeja has committed to a host of measures for the lockdown period, including offering its free users an additional 30 minutes of browsing time every day, at no charge during this period, in certain instances scrapping arrears for home and business accounts, charging no late fees for the month of April, and lastly, whitelisting all major government corona Web sites on its hotspot service to be accessed free 24/7.

“As a trusted solution provider to ikeja since 2017, eNetworks was brought in specifically to help us address metered connections within the Gauteng segments,” Minnaar says. “As a company that understands how our business operates, and the urgency of the situation, eNetworks pulled out all the stops to help us with the necessary upgrades.

“This would not have been possible had eNetworks operated as your run-of-the-mill service provider,” he adds. “The company has played a critical role in helping ikeja to keep our service offering agile and scalable during these unprecedented times.”

“Our relationship with ikeja has grown organically and there is a mutual understanding that exists between the two organisations. Our joint focus is on the underlying technology and the speed to market, ensuring that the services are delivered quickly and effectively to ikeja’s customers,” says Chris Morgan, Senior Sales Executive: WAN and ISP Services, Cape Region at eNetworks. “This type of partnership lends itself well to smooth operations during times of urgency.”