Mobile company uses shipping containers to reach township audience

Mobile technology company, Vodacom, has developed a system allowing mobile base stations to be retrofitted to shipping container shops, increasing coverage roll-out speed.



With the increasing availability of low-cost devices, data usage has hit the mainstream and traffic volume growth in townships is running well-ahead of the average growth rate countrywide.



This presents a challenge for mobile networks, with high population density and a relative lack of formal infrastructure making it difficult to build new base stations to address this demand.



Vodacom has developed a new solution to solve this problem, which involves retrofitting a compact base station to the roof of existing shipping container shops.

Thanks to the container solution, “new sites can be rolled out quite literally within weeks as opposed to the typical 12-18 month lead time to build new base stations,” said Vodacom chief technology officer, Andries Delport.



These new base stations are not only smaller, but more energy efficient and cost less than half of a normal base station.