14th February 2019

Vumatel has unveiled Vumacam, a CCTV solution which it hopes will make South Africa a safer place.

After Vumatel launched its fibre network in Johannesburg several years ago, it noticed an increasing demand for CCTV installations in neighbourhoods where it had a presence.

This inspired Vumatel to assess the viability of launching a CCTV system for communities – an initiative which gained momentum after Vumatel acquired Fibrehoods, which had access to CCTV technology and experience.



Vumacam’s CCTV platform runs on Vumatel and other providers’ fibre infrastructure, which ensures that the UHD video feed it provides is maintained at all times.

The CCTV fibre network which Vumatel runs is separate to the network which consumers use at home for their broadband needs, it added.

Intelligent software

The video feed from Vumacam’s CCTV system is then made available to security companies for a monthly fee, depending how many cameras they would like access to. Vumacam is also in discussions with the police and car tracking companies to provide their CCTV feed.

Vumacam’s system also provides intelligent hardware and software for security companies to use, which includes license plate recognition (LPR) functionality.

Every vehicle passing an LPR camera is checked against multiple databases, including SAPS-listed stolen vehicles. Security professionals then monitor footage, integrate analytics, and use LPR monitoring from a centralised video management system.

Analytics systems which allow “exceptions” to be surfaced to a security command centre, such as a vehicle illegally dumping in a park, can also be laid on top of the service.

Expansion and regulation

The next step for Vumacam is to expand across Johannesburg over the coming 12 months, it said, with a rollout from Braamfontein in the south to Woodmead in the north. This will consist of 15,000 cameras.

R500 million has been allocated for this expansion, added the company.

In terms of regulation, Vumacam said their system is POPI Act compliant and all security companies it interacts with are heavily vetted before they are provided with a CCTV feed.