HSDPA gains in popularity
Vodacom last year announced that it had 500 000 broadband subscribers and this growth seems to have accelerated. According to the mobile provider the strong uptake of its broadband products, especially HSDPA 3.6 with HSUPA, continues.
Of the current Vodacom HSDPA base, 2.5% have subscribed to HSDPA 3.6 with HSUPA. This figure is however set to rise as the availability of HSUPA enabled data devices increase and prices start to decrease.
A recent search for HSUPA-enabled data cards at official Vodacom distributors revealed that there was a shortage of 7.2Mbps HSDPA & HSUPA devices in the market, something that Vodacom is undoubtedly aware of and which can be expected to be addressed soon.
Vodacom is also aggressively expanding its HSDPA coverage country wide, and currently has in the region of 2700 HSDPA enabled base stations. All these base stations are 3.6 Mbps HSDPA and HSUPA enabled and is 7.2 Mbps capable.
Backhaul restraints are however keeping Vodacom back in switching a 7.2 Mbps service on, a problem which is also keeping its competitor MTN back in their HSDPA upgrades.
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