The Coronavirus pandemic is certainly dominating headlines, wreaking havoc on businesses and most disturbing of all, threatening people’s lives.

But as with every dark cloud there is a silver lining, and one is how businesses are pulling together to try make the lives of the public a bit easier as we grapple with this threat.

From supermarkets like Pick ‘n Pay announcing dedicated shopping hours for seniors, to telecom operators like Vodacom coming to the party with special data deals, we are seeing a heartening groundswell of support from companies.

The latest of these is fibre to the home network operator Vumatel, which announced today that it will be upgrading the line speeds of its existing users on the network at no additional cost, in partnership with ISPs.

The change is slated to come into effect from 1 April 2020 until the end of May 2020, to, according to the company, “enable seamless remote working, additional streaming and educational services.”

“We have a responsibility to make it easier for people to stay connected as they navigate the next few weeks of working and learning from home. By increasing  the line speeds we will make content streaming and educational services more seamless; as well as enable a better remote working experience,” explained Simon Butler, chief commercial officer at Vumatel,

The company elaborated that it has been in consultation with a number of its ISP partners, to discuss the initiative, and many of the ISPs, who have the capacity to do so, will participate. 

“Our ISPs are a critical enabler of this initiative and we believe that in our own small way, we are collectively helping to make remote working and online learning, an easier process for many,” added Butler

For new customers that are in the process of installing fibre, the company will waive its monthly line rental over the next two months together with participating ISPs.