Vodacom, SA's largest mobile operator, is on track to spend R6.3 billion on upgrading and improving the stability of its network in the 2012 financial year.
During the first six months, the operator spent R3.5 billion on its operations, of which about R3 billion went into its local network.
Vodacom has recently been plagued by network failures, the largest of which happened at the end of June, when millions of South Africans were unable to communicate across large parts of the country.
The operator has since had a few smaller failures, although none on the scale of the June collapse, which was the second such large incident in about three years.
Protecting the core
CEO Pieter Uys, speaking during the company's results presentation this morning, said Vodacom has added a triple redundancy layer at the core of the network to protect the area where it could experience “big” failures.
The June collapse led to a backlash from consumers on social media sites such as Twitter.
Vodacom has also replaced the radio access network infrastructure between Pretoria and Johannesburg, and is now rolling out in other provinces. “It's a big project; it was bigger than we expected.”
Uys explained the newer equipment uses less power and can be upgraded to LTE at the “flick” of a switch.
The operator has also been 'refarming' spectrum to make sure that fewer calls are dropped, said Uys. However, during the upgrades, dropped call rates would have increased temporarily, he added.
Vodacom now has 4 700 3G base stations, of which 3 700 are on its own backhaul network, said Uys. Its self-provisioning programme will “step up” in the second half of the year, he added.
During the first half of the year, the company spent R938 million on radio access network equipment and R1.15 billion on backhaul.
CFO Rob Shuter says the company expects to spend between 11% and 13% of its revenue on capital expenditure, and is on track to meet its guidance of R7.7 billion by the end of the year.
When the company rebranded from “cool blue” to “red hot” in April, it promised subscribers a better network experience, said Uys.
The group also promised an improved customer service experience. It has now integrated social media, and consumers can complain on Twitter to @Vodacom111. “If they don't come back to you, tweet me,” he added.
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