Staff Reporter
Continued acts of theft and vandalism at Vodacom base stations in the central region could put a damper on the company’s rapid growth in network traffic which jumped 30 percent since the beginning of the national lockdown.
Vodacom’s executive head for network and operations in the central region, Lameck Mkorongo, told a virtual media round-table Tuesday that while the company has enjoyed significant growth as more people are turning to data and phone use at home, increasing theft and vandalism of equipment, particularly in Phuthaditjhaba, eastern Free State, is a major concern.
“Data traffic increased as people work, study and stay indoors,” he said.
“Network traffic increased from 99.5 terabytes before the lockdown to 127.8 terabytes after the lockdown . . . but our base stations have been vandalised repeatedly in various parts of our network.”
Mkorongo said criminals were mostly targeting the batteries and fuel containers installed for back-up because power supplies from the national grip are not always reliable.
“Vandalism and theft have been most severe in the Phuthaditjhaba area,” he said.
“And where we have replaced the batteries with fuel cells, the fuel tanks have also been stolen.
“We are not sure what they want them for. We know that area has a serious water problems water shortage, so they may want the containers for that.”
According to Mkorongo, Vodacom’s sites at Tseki, Bluegumbosch and Witsieshoek are some of the most affected and the company has installed more advanced systems with dual battery banks and rectifiers is case of power outages.
He said Vodacom boasts a network investment of about R123 million in the central region which covers the Free State and the Northern Cape, but it has been forced to spend an additional R37 million on the back-up equipment.
Vodacom executive head for the local consumer business unit, Marelize Beukes, said the lockdown has also seen more people switching to fibre as it is cost-effective and reliable.
“People moved from their work centres where they had WiFi access and started working remotely from their homes,” she said.
Beukes said even though the rolling out of more fibre infrastructure was put on hold, the sales continued to grow because there had been very little uptake initially.
“In the Free State, of which the most of the infrastructure is in Bloemfontein, there are currently 13 000 homes where fibre is running on the streets or suburbs, but of that 13 000, only . . . 3 500 houses are connected,” she said.
“This means there is a potential of between nine and 10 000 homes that can still be connected to fibre.
“So, post lockdown, 6 000 homes could have fibre passing through them in the central region, including the smaller towns.”