Telecommunications giant Vodacom and farming business BPG Langfontein have partnered to shift farm workers with a second-generation (2G) feature phone onto third-generation (3G) smartphones.

Wakkerstroom, in Mpumalanga, is now the first smartphone-only town in South Africa powered by Vodacom, empowering farmworkers with the tools needed to be part of the digital revolution under way, says Vodacom Mpumalanga managing executive Zakhele Jiyane.

“This is a model the network provider hopes to replicate across the country as part of its mission to connect people who live in deep rural areas and are still dependent on 2G networks.”

The move of more than 1 400 farm workers from 2G to 3G devices will also free much-needed spectrum, which can be refarmed to provide for faster networks, such as 3G and fourth-generation (4G).

Working with BPG Langfontein, the telecommunications group aimed to pioneer the approach to connect people in rural communities to faster mobile networks and devices.

“We are helping to remove communication barriers,” Jiyane says, noting that BPG Langfontein employs the majority of the people living in Wakkerstroom.

This initiative will enable most citizens in the community to use the Vodacom network to connect to the Internet and access online government services, eCommerce and health services such as Mum&Baby.

Students, connecting to the Internet for the first time, can access Vodacom’s eSchool free of charge, while jobseekers can use their smartphones and tablets to apply for jobs over the Internet on Vodacom’s zero-rated career sites.

“This will be key to driving growth to the benefit of people living in this area,” he says.

Further, Vodacom is going to educate the farm workers about data and the benefits of the Internet, while seeking out opportunities to empower the community members with its corporate social investment tools in areas such as education, gender-based violence and health.

Vodacom has also deployed 4G base stations in Wakkerstroom as part of this commitment.