Southtechreviews

  ·         Vodafone and Vodacom plan to use Project Kuiper’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation to extend the reach of their 4G/5G networks. ·         Companies plan to participate in beta testing of Project Kuiper service in 2024. Vodafone and Project Kuiper, Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite (LEO) communications initiative, today announced a strategic collaboration through which Vodafone and Vodacom plan to use Project Kuiper’s network to extend the reach of 4G/5G services to more of their customers in Europe and Africa.   Vodafone and Vodacom plan to use Project Kuiper’s high-bandwidth, low-latency satellite network to bring the benefits of 4G/5G connectivity to areas that may otherwise be challenging and prohibitively expensive to serve via traditional fibre or microwave solutions. Project Kuiper will connect geographically dispersed cellular antennas back to the companies’ core telecom netw...

Vodacom Central Region,  covering the Free State and Northern Cape provinces,  has switched on two new 3G and 4G enabled base station sites in deep rural areas in Kamiesberg Local Municipality, Northern Cape province. The two base stations were deployed in Kamasies and Rooifontein villages that had been without network connectivity since the early 1990s. The latest move is significant for scores of households in Kamasies and Rooifontein villages as these will be the very first base station sites to be deployed in these villages, ushering in a new era of digital inclusion for the people living in the area. The Kamiesberg Local Municipality is a Category B municipality situated within the Namakwa District in the Northern Cape Province. It is one of the smaller municipalities of the six that make up the district. Kamiesberg Local Municipality provides services to 16 small towns – Kamassies Rooifontein, Nourivier, Leliefontein, Paulshoek, Kamieskroon, Kharkams, Tweervier, Koiingna...

Vodacom KwaZulu-Natal Region’s drive to connect everyone to the digital economy irrespective of where they live, is changing lives. The region has accelerated its deep rural network investment to cover remote areas of the province that had no mobile network connectivity. An investment of close to R100 million over three financial periods has led to the deployment of 84 new base station sites, ushering in a new era of mobile connectivity and successfully driving digital inclusion for all. The new sites were rolled out in 9 District municipalities and 14 Local municipalities including Jozini, uMhlabuyalingana, uMfolozi, uMlalazi, uMsinga, uMzumbe, uMgeni, Ray Nkonyeni, Mandeni, eNdumeni, eDumbe, Msunduzi, Newcastle and Nqutu. This is part of Vodacom’s Rural Coverage Acceleration Programme, aimed at expanding network coverage for people who live in deep rural areas of South Africa to augment the good work that Vodacom regions have done in ramping up network infrastructure outside of urban...