Game reserve and lodge networks
A reserve is a large property with several lodges, gates, camps and patrol routes, usually far from fibre and often off the grid. CTTX builds one engineered wireless backbone that the reserve owns: carrier-backed backhaul into the property, solar-powered high sites, and point-to-point links to every lodge, gate and camera. Guest Wi-Fi, ranger comms, reservations and security all run on it.
Request a reserve site survey Read the reserve case studyBackbone into the property
The starting point is capacity. A carrier-backed backhaul link, fibre or engineered wireless depending on what reaches the boundary, is terminated at a main mast on the property. The main mast is placed by survey, on ground that sees both the backhaul point and as much of the property as possible, and sized for the whole reserve.
Distribution to lodges, ranger stations, gates and cameras
From the main mast, point-to-point links run to relay high sites on koppies with line of sight to the outlying lodges. Each relay serves its cluster: lodge, staff village, gate, workshop. Smaller sites hang off the nearest high site on a point-to-multipoint sector.
- Lodges: guest and back-of-house networks, reservations, card payments, VoIP.
- Ranger stations: radio-over-IP, tracking, incident reporting.
- Gates: access control, number-plate cameras, intercom to the lodge.
- Cameras: anti-poaching and perimeter CCTV backhaul to a control room on or off the property.
Guest Wi-Fi as an outcome, not a product
Guests do not care about masts. They care that the video call from the deck works and the match streams in the suite. That is an outcome of the backbone: enough symmetrical capacity into the lodge that the Wi-Fi inside it is never the bottleneck. CTTX builds the backbone and the links to each lodge; the in-building Wi-Fi runs on top of it.
Solar power and remote monitoring
High sites on a reserve rarely have grid power. Each relay runs on solar with lithium battery backup in a stainless, vandal-resistant cabinet. Every site is remotely monitored, so a site losing charge in a week of overcast weather is dealt with before the lodge goes dark.
Proof: a 30,000 ha reserve, three lodges, one backbone
Before CTTX, a 30,000-hectare private game reserve ran on a consumer wireless service delivering roughly 3 Mbps down, with the provider on site every day swapping equipment to keep it alive. We replaced it with one engineered layer: a carrier-backed 100 Mbps fully symmetrical backhaul into the property, a main mast serving the main lodge, and two solar-powered relay masts extending the backbone to the outlying lodges.
- Over 800 Mbps measured on the reserve backbone
- Zero provider site visits since go-live (previously daily)
- Guests stream HD sport at the lodges; ranger comms and reservations run on the same backbone
- Solar-powered, lithium-backed, remotely monitored, in vandalism-proof stainless cabinets
The owner's clearest verdict: they stopped doing speed tests. Read the full case study.
Addo, the Eastern Cape, the Karoo and the Lowveld
CTTX is based in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), an hour from the reserves along the N2 and the Addo and Sundays River corridor, and a day's drive from the Karoo reserves. Teams also build in Limpopo and the Lowveld, where the terrain and power problems are the same and fibre is further away. See the reserves and lodges overview, farm networks and CTTX in the Eastern Cape.
Is your reserve in the same position?
Send us the reserve name or GPS position, the number of lodges and gates, and what the network must carry. We come back with a terrain-aware pre-assessment before anyone drives out. The survey costs R3,500 excluding VAT, credited if the build proceeds.
Request a reserve site survey Email sales@cttx.co.zaCommon questions
How do remote lodges get internet?
With an engineered wireless backbone: a carrier-backed backhaul link to a main mast on the property, and point-to-point links from solar-powered high sites to each lodge, gate, ranger station and camera. On one 30,000 ha reserve CTTX delivers 100 Mbps symmetrical into the property and over 800 Mbps on the backbone.
Satellite or a wireless backbone: which is better for a reserve?
Satellite suits a single lodge with no line of sight to anything, and is worth having as a standby. It does not join lodges to each other, and every lodge needs its own dish and subscription. A wireless backbone joins the whole property on one network the reserve owns, carrying cameras and ranger comms as well as guests. Many reserves run a backbone with satellite as backup.
How many lodges can one backbone serve?
As many as the high sites can see. The reserve in our case study runs three lodges from one main mast and two relay masts, with over 800 Mbps measured on the backbone. Adding a lodge or camera cluster later means adding a link from the nearest high site, not rebuilding.
What about power on a reserve with no grid?
Each relay high site runs on solar with lithium battery backup in a stainless, vandal-resistant cabinet, and is remotely monitored. The backbone stays up through load-shedding, and a site that is losing charge is seen from the office before it fails, without a vehicle trip.
What does a reserve site survey cost?
R3,500 excluding VAT, credited back against the build if you proceed.