Letter from Mt Frere: Zukile Majova reports on the rural community of Ntabankulu which, long kept in digital network darkness, will finally be connected.
Gone are the days when the demand for fast and reliable digital communication networks was a preserve of urban middle-class people.
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) learned this recently after receiving a letter from the community of Ntabankulu complaining about poor network coverage in the area.
The community had witnessed network blackouts lasting 12 to 24 hours, making it difficult for the youth to apply for jobs, register on the database of the National Youth Service, or apply for social grants.
Ntabankulu Municipality Mayor Tsileng Sobuthongo said Vodacom, MTN and Telkom assured the people of Ntabankulu that new infrastructure would be rolled out in June and July.
Vodacom said a new site in the Mvukisi area would go live by the end of June, while another site in Bhonxa village would be live in September.
MTN confirmed that it was working on five additional sites to guarantee 99% coverage in the surrounding villages.
Two sites would be operational by the end of 2022 while the three other sites would be completed beyond the 2022 period.
“MTN indicated that it has been impacted by vandalism and stability. It will engage with the community to form a partnership with the aim of protecting the infrastructure and encourage the community to report incidents of theft and vandalism,” Icasa said in its letter to the people of Ntabankulu.
Telkom said it has no network towers in the area but was providing services through its roaming partner Vodacom.
Internet penetration among ordinary people is driving the growth of the interest in satellite television, new media and digital news publishers, especially in vernacular platforms.
Scrolla.Africa is one such multilingual platform that has benefited from improving internet penetration, attracting over 1.1 million subscribers on its various digital platforms.
Here in Mt Frere, young people can be seen gathered around free wifi zones outside the main banks and even the main churches, like the Methodist Church, offer free internet access to young people and congregants.
Umzimvubu Municipal Mayor Zukiswa Ndevu has created free wifi zones at the Mt Ayliff taxi rank, while the community hall of iZwelijikile, in ward 26 at ePakade, went live with free wifi last week.
Ndevu said she was trying to help learners from surrounding schools use the community hall to access the internet and do schoolwork.
