{"id":45259,"date":"2012-03-11T11:53:02","date_gmt":"2012-03-11T09:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=45259"},"modified":"2012-03-12T10:08:30","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T08:08:30","slug":"behind-vodacoms-coverage-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/45259-behind-vodacoms-coverage-battle.html","title":{"rendered":"Behind Vodacom\u2019s coverage battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poor network coverage, dropped calls and lines that are constantly busy, are some of the things that Vodacom<\/a> says it\u2019s constantly working towards decreasing.<\/p>\n

The cellphone operator has committed itself to upgrading its network. This year, Vodacom will spend R6bn in increasing its network coverage. In the past two weeks Vodacom has installed 53 new network towers across the country, comprising of both 2G and 3G<\/a> sites \u2013 updates of which can be found on the company\u2019s Facebook<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

But at times the company\u2019s efforts to bring better connectivity to citizens is met with resistance from environmentalist groups who have health concerns regarding the electromagnetic frequency given off by these base stations.<\/p>\n

At other times when it attempts to erect new base towers it receives tough opposition from \u201chealth groups\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe major issue is a lack of general understanding that the issues of EMF\/health and that of network quality are inextricably linked,\u201d said Richard Boorman<\/a>, executive head of corporate communications at Vodacom.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor each new site we install, we face calls to have other sites removed and face opposition to multiple other new sites.\u00a0 The main reason given for objecting to sites are health concerns.\u00a0 Often it\u2019s a vocal minority that impacts the service for hundreds of other customers,\u201d adds Boorman.<\/p>\n

In response to this Vodacom has installed boosters at some of its stations, to extend its service to those areas where masts might have been removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis most definitely isn\u2019t a case of poor customer service \u2013 it\u2019s evidence that we\u2019re doing everything possible to deal with a situation that is often out of our hands,\u201d said Boorman.<\/p>\n

\"Vodacom<\/a>

New Vodacom Towers that have been erected in the past two weeks<\/p><\/div>\n

Source: Moneyweb<\/a><\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

How unsafe is cellular radiation?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

4G health warning report slated<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

No link between mobile phone use and cancer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opposition to erecting new network towers blamed for Vodacom’s coverage issues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":27039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[35,1167,41],"class_list":["post-45259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-headline","tag-richard-boorman","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45259"}],"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\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45433,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45259\/revisions\/45433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}