When President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a national lockdown in March 2020 it was a shock to the system. The lockdown changed the way people worked and lived within a matter of days.<\/p>\n
Millions of South Africans had to transition from office-based jobs to working from home, and for many people, their entertainment moved online.<\/p>\n
To make it work, people needed the right equipment and fast broadband connections. It was a busy time for tech retailers and Internet service providers.<\/p>\n
Webcams sold out, laptop sales shot up, and phones were ringing off the hook at ISPs. Business was booming.<\/p>\n
There was, however, a challenge for mobile operators who suddenly had to carry much more traffic than usual.<\/p>\n
Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub revealed data traffic increased by 98% in the three months following the lockdown. Other mobile operators faced a similar jump in volumes.<\/p>\n
More people subscribed to mobile broadband services, and those who were already subscribed started to use more data.<\/p>\n
This was expected. Zoom replaced face-to-face meetings, Netflix replaced cinemas, and online gaming replaced drinking with friends.<\/p>\n
The name of the game for mobile operators and ISPs was bandwidth. And lots of it.<\/p>\n
For fixed-line networks, it was relatively easy to increase network capacity, but mobile operators had a tougher time. They needed additional spectrum to increase their radio access network capacity.<\/p>\n
ICASA helped out by issuing temporary spectrum to Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Rain, and Liquid Telecom in the 700MHz, 800MHz, 2,300MHz, 2,600MHz, and 3,500MHz bands.<\/p>\n
It took some time to get additional radios and other network equipment to roll out the spectrum, but the extra spectrum ultimately helped a great deal to ease congestion and even increase speeds.<\/p>\n
MTN was able to increase its speed from 41Mbps in Q4 2019 to over 64Mbps in Q4 2020.<\/p>\n
Vodacom, Telkom, and Cell C were also able to increase their average network speed despite the spike in traffic.<\/p>\n
Rain was, however, dealt a blow. The frequencies it received were not suitable for rapid deployment with their existing radios.<\/p>\n
It struggled to cope with the increased demand for data on its network and it started to experience congestion.<\/p>\n
Rain\u2019s average download speed plummeted during the lockdown and many of its subscribers complained about connectivity problems and poor speeds.<\/p>\n
MTN was\u00a0 the biggest winner during the lockdown while Rain was the biggest loser. This is clearly illustrated in the year-on-year change in the table below.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/MTN.jpg\")
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