MTN South Africa announced today a R350 million network investment to modernise, upgrade, build new sites and transmission links in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West.
“We want to bridge the digital divide and create exciting opportunities for communities, businesses and individual users. Our investment is therefore far more than achieving market share growth in the region – it is about bringing the benefits of the digital world to more people through a stable, secure and innovative network experience,” says Kagiso Moncho, MTN General Manager for Northern Region.
“We are already seeing active data users and traffic increase as more consumers seek affordable, innovative and reliable digital services and solutions. The key for us is to deliver network excellence and an enterprise turnaround. This will be underpinned by modernisation and rollout of 5G, together with price competitiveness,” says Moncho.
Maintaining network quality remains the key objective despite challenges, like battery theft.
While battery theft and vandalism remain a challenge, MTN has earmarked part of the investment for battery replacement and security programmes in the Northern Region.
“Vandalism of the network infrastructure remains a pain point and hinders the great progress we have made in stabilising and improving network availability. These vandalism incidents affect the economy negatively and the interruptions due to network outages hinder emergency and security services. Unfortunately, Limpopo province is one of the hotspots,” says Moncho.
“We plead with the members of the community to report any vandalism incidents that they might witness to the nearest SAPS branches. Our efforts are directed towards building and maintaining a resilient infrastructure amidst adversities. We remain committed to proving a modern connected digital life for all.”
MTN’s work in these provinces also includes programmes to help the most vulnerable, particularly in the deep rural villages. Key stakeholder partnerships with government and municipalities will see ongoing support for learners and education facilities. Food parcel support is also a key part of the initiatives being rolled out by MTN Foundation as the Covid-19 hit lives and livelihoods.
The strides being made to help people and communities on the ground across SA is also reflected in recent network successes achieved by MTN, which has been named South Africa’s best network three years (2019-2021) in succession based on P3 Communications. The benchmarking Network Quality score results are indicative that MTN provides its customers with optimum upload and super faster download speeds as well as uninterrupted streaming, surfing and the best in voice calling when compared to other mobile operators.
“We are working tirelessly to ensure our customers enjoy their experience on our Bozza network, and our commitment to serving our customers with distinction will always be at the core of what we do,” concludes Moncho.
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