CENTURION, Gauteng – 23 August 2012 – Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), in conjunction with SEACOM, has provided two dedicated optical fibre cables to the Hilton Sandton Hotel, the venue for the 3rd African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) conference. Delegates will experience Internet speeds of 2Gbps, 2000 times faster than an average home connection.
The event is organised by the Internet Society, specifically addressing interconnection challenges together with the wide ranging opportunities the African continent offers. AfPIF aims to foster national and cross-border interconnection opportunities by providing a forum where key players from infrastructure and service providers, ISPs, regulators and policy makers can engage in a relaxed but business like environment, sharing their experiences and learning from experts in the field.
DFA’s CEO Gustav Smit says he is privileged to be sponsoring the fibre infrastructure for the event. “We are so excited to showcase the capabilities and speed of fibre. DFA has already laid in excess of 6 400 kilometres of infrastructure across South Africa and is open to all licensed players on equal terms. Any service provider, licensed to do so by ICASA, may rent fibres from DFA for their own transmission and backbone infrastructure purposes.”
AfPIF 2012 will provide a platform for open discussion and regional problem solving as well as focusing on social and business networking. At AfPIF 2012, the conversation will focus on the regional infrastructure, content and policy issues that are critical components of transit deficits. As a multi-stakeholder forum, the event will foster cross-border interconnection opportunities and address the issues and challenges of the regional Internet transit deficit.
AfPIF also aims to promote the establishment of new, and the growth of existing, Internet Exchange Points through building community co-operation and demonstrating the value proposition of local, national and regional interconnection.
Furthermore, AfPIF aims to bridge the information asymmetry with respect to peering and transit economics. The peering and transit fundamentals enable the development of interconnection relationships and strategies for operators at the local, regional and global levels.
“AfPIF provides a venue for productive technical discussions and business relationships that can be forged to augment Internet infrastructure and services in Africa,” concludes Smit.
DFA is the premier wholesale, open-access fibre-infrastructure and -connectivity provider in South Africa. We finance, build, install, manage, and maintain a world-class fibre network to transmit metro and long-haul telecommunications traffic. We started rolling out our fibre network in 2007, and to date, we have deployed over 13,000 km of ducting infrastructure in major metros, secondary cities, and smaller towns. Our network runs with an industry-leading uptime of 99.98%. We lease our secure transmission and backbone fibre infrastructure and provide associated connectivity services to telecommunications operators, Internet service providers, media conglomerates, tertiary education institutions, municipalities, government organizations, and other businesses, large and small, on equal terms. DFA is a Level 3 B-BBEE Contributor on the ICT Sector Codes.
Press contacts
Tribeca PR for DFA
dfa@tribecapr.co.za