Simon’s Town’s Poor Cell Phone Coverage
March 17, 2008 – 8:27 am | by JohanNew Here? You’re Invited To Simon’s Town News Updates Subscribe here.
Some time ago I wrote an article on the poor cell phone coverage in Simon’s Town and you responded to the poll. I then went and post on mybroadband.co.za and got a honest and cynical reply from a Vodacom rep (see the comment below). But it’s got a happy ending or rather work is being done to improve cell phone coverage in Simon’s Town. And I share with you the progress.
First the comment from the Vodacom rep as it makes for interesting reading:
Why would Vodacom (or MTN) not provide coverage in a large town like Simon’s Town? I’m sure you noticed on your blog you got more complaints about MTN than Vodacom? (Vodacom - 1 complaint, MTN - 2 complaints)
VC and MTN are constantly accused of being greedy and charging too high mobile prices. Yet in Simon’s Town, both these monsters decided not to put up towers and not fleece the local population. Why could that be?
Vodacom and MTN wants your money, all they have to do is put up towers and the bucks will start rolling in.
So, why no towers?
Obviously because something is stopping the towers from going up.
And these are:
1) Geography - In the middle of the Karoo, it’s easy to give a large footprint with few cells. But when you’re on a coastline, between mountains with the ocean on one side, where do you put the towers? On a barge in the middle of the bay? And even if you identify the perfect site, are you allowed to put up a tower, can you get access to the site and is there backhaul available? Or power?
2) Residents block new sites - The single biggest problem in getting new towers up. Everyone wants coverage but it must magically appear without any towers spoiling the environment. How many houses have you sold who’s value increased because there is a big tower in the backyard? Or on the corner? You’re in the property game, you’ll know all about it.
And, of course, there are the scaremongers who stop towers out of principle on potential radiation issues. And it only takes one complaint to stop a new tower (after a very long process of finding the site)
3) Potential backhaul issues - Lastly, if a site has been identified and we can build a tower, can we actually connect it to the Vodacom network? We’ve got towers built, waiting for backhaul capacity…
Maybe what we can do to help you is the following:
a)- We’ll plan to put a new tower in your front yard (I’m assuming you facing the ocean with the mountain behind you?), as this will give the best coverage into your home. You’ll obviously agree to VC using your property as you’re desperate for coverage. We’ll make it a 2G and 3G tower, so you’ll get blistering speeds on your data card as well.
b)- You help convince your neighbours, council, and the large number of other bodies that have to approve it, that this is a good place for a tower and will benefit the community as a whole. I’m sure your neighbours will be ecstatic as they’ll get good coverage as well.
c)- You’ve got ADSL, so it sounds like backhaul should be OK.
So, we’ve got a location (your front yard), you’ll help us convince everyone we should built it and backhaul is no problem. So, we’re all set to sort out your coverage!
Now for the good news on Cell Phone Coverage in Simon’s Town.
Our Local Ward Councilor, Nicki Holderness, has responded to the 5 issues we want resolved - cell phone coverage is the top issue on our list.
There’s a tower on Tier Berg that’s supposed to provide us with a signal, during the Argus Cycle Tour the signals should have been great because it was operational. Unfortunately there’s no power cables to the tower and it needs to be done by the City of Cape Town. But the tower is on Parks Board property and all these parties have to agree.
According to Nicki it’s a process but she is seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I will keep you posted.
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