CENTURION, Gauteng – 5 September 2012 – eMalahleni (Witbank) will benefit from a golden investment to the value of R52-million, Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) will be deploying a 64 kilometre optic fibre infrastructure throughout the city. This forms part of a R3.5-billion national fibre network that will increase bandwidth and reduce Internet costs significantly.
As an open access dark fibre infrastructure provider, DFA provides communities like eMalahleni (Witbank) with open access to its fibre optic network through licensed operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on equal terms.
DFA will launch towns such as eMalahleni (Witbank) into the digital age and the socio economic benefits of fibre optic networks are vast, affordable broadband contributes to increased economic activity.
The company’s CEO Gustav Smit says the expansion of communications infrastructure brings about new business opportunities. “Open Access broadband also stimulates competition within the telecommunications market, ultimately reducing Internet costs. DFA is here to provide a long term sustainable solution to the local community.”
DFA started rolling out its network in metropolitan areas in October 2007 and has already laid in excess of 6 400 kilometres of infrastructure. The company assumes the role of physical infrastructure developer, funds the rollout and provides all operators with a first class secure ducting infrastructure on which licensed operators can build their services.
The deployment of metro and long haul open access ducting, optimised for fibre network deployment, will enable larger users of communications capacity to enjoy logical separation and ownership of communications capacity, while sharing the same physical right of way and access routes with other carriers.
“Our footprint extends nationally and links with the SEACOM, EASSy, SAFE and the SAT3 cables at Mtunzini in KwaZulu Natal and links to the WACS cable at Yzerfontein and the SAT 3 cable at Melkbosstrand in the Western Cape,” he explains.
“South Africans simply don’t know what 20Mbps or 100Mbps to the home means. An opportunity needs to be created for users to test drive serious broadband and ISPs need to play a leading role in mobilising communities,” he concludes.
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