Limpopo Business 2017-18 edition

in terms of access to

in terms of access to technologies that are found in other provinces." Broader investment Ishmael Mathinya, Executive Head of Operations, says the investment narrative goes beyond the capital poured into infrastructure development. "The region has received investments in excess of R577- million over the past three years, with the majority of the investment going to upgrading and integrating the radio, core and transmission infrastructure. Over and above the annual investment, the Group CEO has made a commitment through an investment of R23-million specifically to deep rural areas," according to Ishmael. Following the network investment we are seeing an increase in adoption of smartphones on the Limpopo network with a 66% increase in data traffic; however, Limpopo continues to dominate the number of 2G devices on the network. Structure Vodacom Limpopo has three core units to serve the province of Limpopo: • The Consumer Business Unit, focused on retail customers • The Enterprise Business Unit focused on businesses and the public sector • The Technology division, focused on building, operating and maintaining the network. The executive in Limpopo is empowered to make decisions, backed with requisite resources and believes strongly in local economic development. further notes that the unit is training an additional five engineering interns, all from Limpopo province, four of whom are female. This is linked to Vodacom's investment and commitment to the upliftment of communities through its contribution towards education. Consumer Business Unit Qiniso Nyathi, Executive Head Consumer Business Unit, says our unique rates and a superb value proposition have grown voice and data usage at a rapid rate. Just4You has proven to be very popular with voice customers. Investment in Fibre by Vodacom has enabled and supported this growth, with improved speeds and an increased distribution footprint. The province is attracting an increase in shopping mall developments allowing us to broaden the reach we have to our customers, but also an opportunity to localise the ownership of stores. Enterprise Business Unit (EBU) The Enterprise Business Unit provides solutions to corporates, the public sector as well as small and medium enterprises. Our EBU customers have grown in the province due to the network investments made by Vodacom. Solutions range from basic communications to complex big data to sensing technologies. As Enterprise Business Unit Head Busi Dlamini explains, "Our Within the Technology division, "at least 70% of the staff members are originally from Limpopo province", an important contribution towards local economic development and utilisation of local talent, says Ishmael. He LIMPOPO BUSINESS 2017/18 74

PROFILE offerings are end-to-end technology-based solutions that help customers' transition into the digital world. The objective is to streamline business operations while performing at optimal levels while reducing total cost of ownership. "The EBU is a product and solution leader in various segments and always strives to be first in the market with technology innovations, thus giving us the traction in gaining a sizeable market share." Busi says that the new One Net Business product is ideal for smaller enterprises, with Vodacom hosting everything in the cloud and freeing a business from having to install a full Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) system. "If a sales representative is not in the office, calls are automatically routed to the correct person," says Busi. "It gives you total enterprise mobility. There’s no connection cost, it’s a free call." Chris adds the national perspective: "While Limpopo cannot boast the same number of large enterprises as other provinces, what we do have is a large number of SMEs. In this category we have superseded larger provinces using smaller yet scalable technologies." Technology The prime responsibility of the Technology team is to provide a mobile and fixed network to the people of Limpopo region. As Ishmael Mathinya, the Executive Head, Operations, puts it, "The network is the underlying platform to everything we provide." The provision of the fibre medium serves as an enabler to allow our customers to seamlessly access the Internet and applications of their choice. Through its consistent and intensive investment programme over many years, Vodacom Limpopo has expanded its network footprint to cover the provincial population with 99.9% 2G, 98.9% 3G and 76% 4G. New transmission network infrastructure, new towers and migration allow for constantly improved service and provide the framework for future upgrades. The expansion programmes allow customers to have access to higher data speeds. Looking further ahead, Vodacom is planning for the Internet of Things (IoT), which will require a network that can handle increased demand for data analytics, agility and security. This explains why Vodacom has been at the forefront of increasing its readiness to effortlessly embrace this technology evolution. What cloud and IoT will bring to Vodacom 75 LIMPOPO BUSINESS 2017/18