{"id":124792,"date":"2015-04-22T12:33:06","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T10:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=124792"},"modified":"2015-04-22T12:34:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T10:34:21","slug":"new-vodacom-shipping-container-base-stations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/124792-new-vodacom-shipping-container-base-stations.html","title":{"rendered":"New Vodacom shipping container base stations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vodacom has developed a system\u00a0allowing mobile base stations to be retrofitted to shipping container shops,\u00a0increasing coverage roll-out speed.<\/p>\n

Mobile data usage is growing strongly across South Africa, driven by the rapid uptake of smartphones and tablets.<\/p>\n

With the increasing availability of low-cost devices, data usage has hit the mainstream and traffic volume growth in townships is running well-ahead of the average growth rate countrywide.<\/p>\n

This presents a challenge for mobile networks, with high population density and a relative lack of formal infrastructure making it difficult to build new base stations to address this demand.<\/p>\n

Vodacom has developed a new solution to solve this problem, which involves retrofitting a compact base station to the roof of existing shipping container shops.<\/p>\n

A standard mobile base station typically has a site footprint of 30 square metres or more. This includes a mast, which is usually 15 to 25 metres tall and supports the radio antennae that connect to mobile devices.<\/p>\n

In addition, each site has an equipment storage building to house radio and power equipment. The cost of each installation varies, but is\u00a0in the region of R1.5 million.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the container solution, “new sites can be rolled out quite literally within weeks as opposed to the typical 12-18 month lead time to build new base stations” said\u00a0Vodacom CTO Andries Delport.<\/p>\n

These new base stations are not only smaller, but more energy efficient and cost less than half of a normal base station.<\/p>\n

Vodacom plans to roll out five sites as an initial test, the first of which is set to go live in the Alexandra township.<\/p>\n

These test sites provide mobile coverage over a radius of up to 1.5km and can service 5,000 subscribers at peak times.<\/p>\n

\"Vodacom<\/a>

Vodacom shipping container base station<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Vodacom<\/a>

Vodacom shipping container base station<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Vodacom<\/a>

Vodacom shipping container base station<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Vodacom<\/a>

Vodacom shipping container base station<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Vodacom<\/a>

Vodacom container base station<\/p><\/div>\n

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Vodacom is testing shipping container base stations designed specifically for townships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":124806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[337,29970,35,29968,41],"class_list":["post-124792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-andries-delport","tag-base-station","tag-headline","tag-shipping-container","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124792"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124804,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124792\/revisions\/124804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}