Question NW521 to the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services
19 April 2018 - NW521
Van Dyk, Ms V to ask the Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services
(1) What (a) is the name of the biggest service provider of telephone services in the (i) Kamiesberg, (ii) Khai-Ma, (iii) NamaKhoi and (iv) Richtersveld Local Municipalities in Namaqualand in the Northern Cape and (b) are the details of all telephone-related technology that her department maintains in Namaqualand; (2) What are the relevant details of (a) the name of each cellular telephone company that services the specified areas, (b) the percentage of citizens who have access to some form of telephone service in the specified areas, (c) the number of reception towers erected by each cellular telephone service provider in each case and (d) any plans to erect more reception towers in the near future in each case?
Reply:
I was advised by the Department and ICASA as follows:
(1)(a) (i)&(iv) In the Kamiesberg and Richtersveld local municipalities, the service providers of telephone services are:
- Cell C
- Vodacom
- Telkom
- MTN
The relative sizes of these operators has not been determined for these specified areas, as to who is the biggest service provider.
(1)(a) (ii) &(iii) In Khai-Ma and NamaKhoi local municipalities, the telephone service providers and their services are still to be verified through actual tests by the Independent Communications of South Africa (ICASA) in 2019/2020 financial year.
(1)(b) The details of the telephone-related technology maintained in Namaqualand are:
- GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications, originally Groupe Spécial Mobile) a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation digital cellular networks (2G).
- WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), the third Generation (3G) wireless technology, as defined by the ITU's IMT-2000 specification that is used by UMTS.
- LTE (Long-Term Evolution ) 4G a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA technologies. It increases the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together with core network improvements.
- Fixed land lines - PSTN (public switched telephone network)
(2)(a) The names of the telephone service providers in the specified areas in Namaqualand are:
(i) Cell C
(ii) Vodacom
(iii) Telkom
(iv) MTN
(2)(b) The relevant details of percentage of citizens who have access to some form of telephone service in the specified areas are not available at this stage and to be determined in 2019/2020 financial year.
|
Percentage of citizens who have access to some form of telephone service |
||||||||||||
|
# |
(i) Kamiesberg, |
(ii) Khai-Ma, |
(iii) NamaKhoi |
(iv) Richtersveld |
||||||||
|
2G % |
3G% |
LTE % |
2G % |
3G% |
LTE % |
2G % |
3G% |
LTE % |
2G % |
3G% |
LTE % |
|
|
Cell C |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Vodacom |
61.86 |
60.35 |
3.4 |
72.27 |
55.86 |
9 |
95.16 |
94.35 |
46.7 |
98.99 |
98.7 |
0 |
|
MTN |
67.04 |
62.52 |
0 |
88.22 |
60.75 |
0 |
94.60 |
91.64 |
24 |
91.60 |
90.56 |
47.51 |
|
Telkom (Mobile) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Telkom (Fixed line) |
There were 7 887 working fixed line telephone services in the Namakwa District as at the end of September 2017. 4 521 residential lines and 3 366 business lines. |
Note: The zeroes indicated for Cell C and Telkom Mobile means that these operators have not installed their own base stations in the specified areas, however their customers are roaming on the networks of Vodacom and MTN respectively, and the roaming customers are included in the supplied percentages (%).
(2)(c) The relevant details of the number of reception towers erected by each cellular telephone service provider in each case:
|
#Reception towers per operator in identified local municipalities |
||||
|
# |
(i) Kamiesberg, |
(ii) Khai-Ma, |
(iii) NamaKhoi |
(iv) Richtersveld |
|
Cell C |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Vodacom |
10 |
12 |
18 |
0 |
|
Telkom |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
MTN |
11 |
7 |
16 |
7 |
(2)(d) The relevant details of any plans to erect more reception towers in the near future by each cellular telephone service provider in each case:
|
# Planned Reception towers per operator in identified local municipalities |
||||
|
# |
(i) Kamiesberg, |
(ii) Khai-Ma, |
(iii) NamaKhoi |
(iv) Richtersveld |
|
Cell C |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Vodacom |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
|
Telkom |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
MTN |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |