Vodacom, MTN tell Parliament they've made signifant progress in expanding connectivity
The network operators were presenting before the Communications and Digital Technologies committee on Friday, on progress made in addressing various challenges affecting the sector.
Network switch and cables at a data centre. Pic: @wklzzz/123rf.com
CAPE TOWN - The country’s major network operators like Vodacom and MTN told Parliament that they’ve made significant progress in expanding connectivity.
The likes of Telkom also said they’d made progress in lowering data costs, with the company saying a gigabyte of data has gone down from R99 to R79 between 2018 and 2024.
The network operators were presenting before the Communications and Digital Technologies committee on Friday, on progress made in addressing various challenges affecting the sector.
The communications committee invited the various network operators to inquire about several issues, like transformation in the sector, spectrum conditions, as well as universal connectivity.
Members had raised concerns about poor connectivity, especially in rural communities that are still stuck on 2G.
MTN South Africa CEO Charles Molapisi said they were not in Parliament to present a perfect picture, but there are areas of improvement in connectivity with more investment in 5G.
“We are also happy that the committee will be happy to know that we’ve invested significantly in 5G. We are sitting on 44 to 45% coverage of the 5G network.”
Vodacom SA CEO, Sitholizwe Mdlalose, said they’d also expanded their footprint.
“And we’ve seen the progress of what we’ve built. For example, in 5G, our 5G population coverage has moved from 20.6% in 2022 to about 51.7% as we exited last financial year.”
All networks are in agreement that 2G and 3G networks have to be phased out, with initiatives in place to roll out smartphones to rural consumers at a very low price.