PROJECT ROUND-UP

SOUTH AFRICA ETHIOPIA

Vodacom Central Region, covering both Free State and Northern Cape provinces, is investing over R400 million this financial year in the region’ s network.

Ethio Telecom, in collaboration with Huawei, has announced the successful commercial deployment and stable operation of the first batch of Solar-on-Tower solutions in Africa.

This will be directed towards expanding network infrastructure, enhancing capacity and resilience and empowering communities, with a particular focus on connecting underserved areas across the Free State and Northern Cape.

This collaboration marks a new phase for Ethio Telecom in its push for a green, low-carbon transformation. It will advance clean energy applications, build a green network, and set a new technological benchmark for African telecommunications.

The region spent R500 million during the 2024 / 25 financial year and R340 million in 2022 / 23 on expanding broadband coverage across the region. This is an investment totalling over R1.2 billion over three years and it is part of Vodacom’ s long-term vision to have the widest and most reliable network accessible to all South Africans irrespective of where they live.

Of the total investment, R150 million will be spent on new sites and radio infrastructure, while R210 million will fund fibre and microwave upgrades. The region is accelerating its rollout of 4G and 5G sites, leveraging licensed spectrum such as 700 MHz to 3500 MHz to increase coverage and capacity.

The Solar-on-Tower solution innovatively integrates photovoltaic panels on telecom towers, effectively addressing the challenges of limited land and insufficient space for installing solar power systems in cities.

Ethio Telecom’ s installation enabled the site to generate and use its own solar power within just two days. Based on the first batch of Solar-on-Tower deployment, the solar power supply at the sites can last up to four hours, while diesel generator use is correspondingly reduced from six hours to two hours – a 40 % reduction in fuel consumption per site.

Thousands of sites in Ethiopia’ s capital, Addis Ababa, are facing space constraints, making it impossible to adopt more energyefficient technology such as traditional ground-based photovoltaic solutions. Solar-on-Tower represents the first solution to provide an efficient and feasible path for Africa’ s telecommunications industry to accelerate the replacement of traditional energy with clean energy in space-constrained scenarios.

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