South African telco Vodacom says it has launched the first 4G base station in the village of Thathe Vondo in Thohoyandou, Thulamela Municipality in Limpopo province as part of its effort to expand rural coverage in the country.
The new 4G site, located in Thathe Vondo’s Tshivhase Nature Reserve, will serve thousands of households in the area that up to now had no mobile coverage at all, Vodacom said in a release issued Thursday.
Vodacom said the site in Thathe Vondo is part of the telco’s Rural Coverage Network Expansion Programme, which aims to expand network coverage for people who live in deep rural areas of South Africa.
Vodacom said it has invested over R750 million in network rollout and capacity upgrades in the past two years across Limpopo province. In the past financial year alone, Vodacom Limpopo has deployed 14 new base station sites in Thohoyandou.
Earlier this month, Vodacom Limpopo said it had activated ten new base station sites, including two 5G and eight 4G LTE sites, connecting people in Malamulela, Polokwane, Lebowakgomo, Burgersfort and Hoedspruit.
Omphile Mosegedi, executive head of operations for Vodacom Limpopo, said the base station in Thathe Vondo will empower communities there to gain access to digital services and the economic benefits therein.
“As a result of this deployment, school-going kids can now access the internet for the first time and have the option of using online learning platforms, whilst those who are actively looking for jobs can now use their smartphones to access jobs portals that are zero-rated for Vodacom subscribers,” he said in a statement. “Crucially, community members who previously had to travel long distances to make calls and do banking will be doing this on their devices from the comfort of their homes without incurring and save on travelling costs.”
