CENTURION, Gauteng – 12 April 2016 – DFA, South Africa’s leading provider of open-access fibre infrastructure, today announces that it has acquired a significant minority stake in SA Digital Villages (SADV), which has a proven track record in the FTTH market segment.
The transaction will see SADV reposition itself as a wholesale open access FTTH service provider in the South African market. SADV has been in existence for 8 years and is one the longest serving operators of FTTH networks in South Africa. SADV will leverage the DFA national fibre footprint to build and extend the reach of their open-access FTTH network.
SADV will now offer its FTTH network on a wholesale basis to ISPs, enabling them to deliver a range of internet and value-added services to consumers, while at the same time providing consumers with choice and the benefits associated with service-based competition.
According to Reshaad Sha, Chief Strategy Officer at DFA, “We chose SADV for their extensive experience and proven capabilities in FTTH. DFA through SADV will focus its efforts in the FTTH market to deliver open access high speed connectivity to our service provider customer base.”
Notably, the acquisition will see both organisations still operating as separate entities where current job roles remain unaffected. It will also empower employees to seize greater opportunities through the emerging FTTH market.
Shaun Barkhuizen, SADV’s CEO, believes that “The provision of an open access wholesale solution will address the issue of duplicate fibre deployment, which we are currently experiencing as multiple service providers race to grab the most lucrative areas. Collaboration is the solution to ensure nationwide high speed connectivity as a utility and not a luxury.”
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 15,000 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