What were they thinking?

I'm very glad Vodacom is pumping R9 billion into local capacity, which will be increased even further if it is successful in buying Neotel for R7 billion.

I'm grateful on behalf of the 33 million local customers who were given a free gig of data to use as they pleased on Mother's Day, Sunday, 11 May. Eight million people took Vodacom up on this offer, and thousands complained about slow network speeds, failed calls, and even their inability to use what they were paying for as normal.

So much for Skypeing mom that day, eh?

Sure, it may well have seemed like a bright idea at the time, but whatever genius decided to celebrate Vodacom's 20th birthday that way created one heck of an online social media storm.

I was joking with CEO Shameel Joosub about it on Monday, saying the company must have pushed its network to the brink. Not quite, he joked back. I'm not sure if that means there was more capacity available, and the slow speeds were not because of a bottleneck, or a laughing admission that the infrastructure couldn't cope.

It actually doesn't matter whether Joosub was serious, or meant there was some spare capacity at 1am. What matters is that Vodacom now knows where the gaps in its coverage are, and where potential demand may come from.

Data is expected to explode as operators keep pushing it in a bid to offset declining voice revenues. They're getting more smart devices into people's hands, at a cheaper price, and dropping the per-MB price on a regular basis.

But to push data, you need to make sure your network can cope. The operator I'm with - not Vodacom - is also investing, but this doesn't seem nearly enough to keep up with demand.

That's not adequate. More has to be spent. Remember the days when cellphones were still a novelty? And conversations went like this: "Hello, hello, are you there? Can you hear me?"

I can count the number of calls that haven't ended halfway through, in the past month, on one hand; without fingers.

Lately, that's exactly what my conversations sound like again. I can count the number of calls that haven't ended halfway through, in the past month, on one hand; without fingers.

Telkom Mobile is scaling back on capital expenditure, because its parent company just can't afford it; MTN has cut back, because it believes it has enough headroom on its network (R6.3 million this year compared with the R5.8 billion spent last year); while Cell C is pushing R2.3 billion into its network.

Granted, these are big numbers, "beeeeg", in fact. But they are just not big enough.

If the operators - and the state - want to put data in everyone's hands, we're going to need much more spending. Several times more magnitude of spending.

But, spending isn't enough on its own. The state needs to step up to the plate and put enablers in place. Like releasing more spectrum, for starters.

Granted, operators cannot get their paws on any space in the digital dividend until television moves off analogue and - at this rate - we may well be looking at 2016, and then it will be three years before that space is freed up for operators' use. Yet, frequency in 2.6GHz is available and can be handed out so that long-term evolution, for example, can be rolled out in built-up areas.

Faster broadband = increased speed of communications = greater productivity = economic benefit. A simple equation when our economy is languishing at a growth rate of below 4%, a rate that is not nearly enough to create much needed jobs.

Broadband in rural areas - which will be boosted by the use of the 800MHz spectrum currently used for broadcast - should also bring more people into the e-ecosystem. When people can get online, they can connect.

But we need to move on this, and we must do so now. More investment, more spectrum, more digital inclusion.