PODCAST | Vodacom boss details network resilience strategy

Efforts to keep local telecoms networks powered up, according to SA’s largest player, is the focus in this edition of Business Day Spotlight. 

Host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Sitho Mdlalose, CEO of Vodacom SA. 

The first part of the discussion focuses on Vodacom’s plans to minimise the effects of ongoing power cuts in the country. The company recently signed an agreement with Eskom as part of a push.

Join the discussion: 

Mobile operators — burdened by heavy costs to keep their network running during power outages — have been struggling as Eskom’s extended power cuts sometimes deplete the batteries of their cellphone towers, leading to customers losing their signal.

With persistent load-shedding and a rise in vandalism and theft aggravating SA’s fragile economic recovery and affecting service delivery, operators have had to take on extra costs, creeping into the billions to reduce the effects of power cuts. 

Mdlalose also talks about trends in the local telecoms sector relating to customer numbers and competition in the connectivity market. 

• Business Day Spotlight is a TimesLIVE Production.