Vodacom to invest over R500 million in Eastern Cape to connect the unconnected, drive digital inclusion
Vodacom Eastern Cape region will invest over R500 million into the network and power backup upgrades across the province during the 2023/2024 financial year. This significant investment into the network will help the region expand connectivity in deep rural areas and townships that had no connectivity before. This will enable hundreds of thousands of people to participate in the digital economy for the first time. This coupled with a concerted effort to drive down the cost to communicate through innovative platforms such as Just4U and Just4YouTown has lowered voice and data rates across the province and enabled scores of people to be part of the digital economy underway. The bulk of the capital expenditure will be used to deploy new base stations sites, improve network capacity, perform power backup upgrades due to power outages, and roll out 5G to accelerate digital inclusion. As a result, 106 new deep rural sites will be built in local municipalities such as Buffalo City, Matatiele, ...