Vuma News

We go to great lengths to limit the disruption that our civil work can cause but there are also unforeseen hurdles and obstacles which we do our best to solve as quickly as possible. We thought we would give you insight into how we do the best to avoid disruption as much as possible.

BEFORE ROLLING OUT IN YOUR AREA

GETTING THE SUPPORT OF THE COMMUNITY

Vumatel engages with the Residents Associations, hosts Townhall meetings and tries to gather support for the project. Vumatel will not start a project in an area unless at least 30% of the residents in the suburb have shown their support for it. Why? Well, it lets us know that you actually want the infrastructure. It also allows us to keep in contact with, and send construction updates and important notifications to, at least 30% of the suburb.

MAKING SURE WE LIMIT DISRUPTION

Once we have enough support for the project, we apply to the respective council for Wayleaves. Wayleaves are drawn up for every service in the ground and indicate where existing services run underground (like electricity and water). Wayleaves also indicate where we are allowed to trench.

Once we have received the Wayleaves, we mark out the entire route in the suburb and scan the route for services underground that might not be accurately represented on the documents.

Through these activities, we go through every precaution to prevent hitting services. Hitting services could result in some service disruptions. This is a huge inconvenience to the residents, is also costly to us and can harm our reputation in a particular community. We therefore do everything we can to prevent this from happening.

Did you know, that some services have been in the ground for so long, that the ground has actually shifted over time and completely moved the services from their original location? It is quite incredible that there is a whole world underneath our feet bringing us electricity, light, water and making our cities work. For a few weeks of disruption, we are connecting your neighbourhood to high-speed internet, for a lifetime connected to the Information Age.

COMMUNICATION

Before we launch the civil work, we go from door-to-door to meet with you and explain the Wallbox. The Wallbox (a little grey utility box), allows us to provision the fibre to your property, in the same way that you have a water meter or an electricity box that allows the services to be provisioned to your property. You do not need to pay for the Wallbox, or even make use of it. Should you, or future generations wish to gain access to fibre broadband, your property will be fibre-ready.

The Wallbox engagement also gives us the opportunity to discuss the roll-out process with you and give you our contact details should you have any queries or concerns during the civil work. You also have an area specific liaison who is your go-to-person should you have any queries or concerns throughout the project. If you don’t answer, we will leave a Wallbox booklet in your postbox which explains everything.

We also leave construction notifications in every postbox, launch area specific Twitter pages to provide you with regular updates and email everyone who has shown their interest in the project, including the Resident Associations once a week with a construction update.

DURING THE ROLL-OUT

Vumatel listens to you. Please contact your area’s Vuma liaison if you have ANY issues. Show your interest on our website to be added to the mailing list or email social@vumatel.co.za to ask for your liaison's details. We will gladly assist with any issues raised directly with our team.

There are many companies out there who do not respond to complaints. We are not one of them. What we do is disruptive but we know that, we take responsibility and accountability for what we do and every day we learn how to be better.

There are many companies who do not take responsibility for their actions. We are not one of them. There are many companies who would not help you at 8pm on a Sunday. We are not one of them. During a recent power outage, we reached out to the community and supplied two families with generators at 10pm on a Sunday evening, because they had sick babies and could not do without power. We really do care. If you ever engage with us and feel like we don’t, please reach out to us on Facebook or Twitter and give us the opportunity to show you that we do.

AFTER THE ROLL-OUT

Rome wasn’t built in a day. When we trench past your driveway, we will close the trench, but are unable to fully reinstate it on the same day. The reason we do not fix your driveway immediately is because we have separate civil and reinstatement teams. We complete all of the civil work (the trenching) in an area before sending out specialist reinstatement teams to restore your driveway to its original condition.

Many South Africans put a great deal of care into their pavements and do not realise that the sidewalk belongs to the council and is not the property of the home owner. The council is therefore in a position to provide us, and other infrastructure providers with permission to trench. Vumatel understands the amount of effort many South Africans put into keeping their driveways looking good, so we commit to fully reinstate each driveway to its original condition.

WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO

Despite the disruptive nature of rolling out infrastructure, we believe that fibre will move this country forward, provide people with opportunities and connect SA.

In our pursuit to build a connected South Africa we also provide free 1Gbps Fibre to every school we pass when deploying our network. You can read more about the massive changes this connectivity is making to schools here: Vumatel offers free fibre to schools. The free connectivity means that schools can divert funds reserved for the internet into more crucial things, like classroom maintenance.

We will be the first to admit that infrastructural upgrades are not easy but we believe in a connected South Africa and we are excited to take the country on this journey with us.

© 2017 Vumatel