Ex-Absa CEO Aims For The Slice Of Fibre Market

A company led by ex-Absa boss Steve Booysen is aiming for a slice of the booming fibre market in South Africa, which has seen new players emerge such as Vumatel. By Gugu Lourie

Metrofibre Networx, which is led by Booysen as a CEO and executive chairman, is supported by its active shareholder – Sanlam Private Equity (SPE).

In 2013 Sanlam invested in the managed open access fibre network and broadband fibre provider and has representation on the Metrofibre board. Sanlam invested in Metrofibre to grow its own fibre network, marking its first investment of this nature.

Metrofibre, which was founded in 2010, is looking to take a slice of the Fibre to the Home (FTTH) market, while also extending its globally compliant network and services to local service providers.

Metrofibre’s residential offerings include network connectivity that boasts speeds up to 1,000 megabits per second, facilitating super-fast downloads, streaming TV, unparalleled gaming as well as access to cloud solutions. The company has a series of packages suited for the small and home office, body corporates, and property developers.

“The next big step for us as a company is to become the preferred FTTH provider in Gauteng – a goal we are on track with as we are currently developing and rolling out fibre in a number of areas in the north of the province. Looking ahead I do believe that cost effective quality fibre solutions will be the next step in opening up opportunities for business in South Africa and it’s a wave that we as Metrofibre want to be at the forefront of,” says Booysen.

The company believes that with its growing network of service provider customers, “it is fast being recognised as not only a wholesaler of Carrier Ethernet connectivity, but also as a serious player in the local last mile fibre solutions market”.

“Fibre is the way of the future for data connectivity, it is reliable, fast and cost effective, making it the ideal solution for service providers, telco companies and the home user,” says Booysen.

“Today we not only provide Carrier Ethernet solutions to myriad service provider customers, but are also rapidly rolling out FTTH solutions, coupled with broadband connectivity, to a growing number of residential and business areas in Gauteng.”

Metrofibre is a provider of dark fibre or layer 2 fibre for ISP’s and telecommunications companies. It owns owns and manages South Africa’s first globally compliant Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) open access fibre network, over which it connects in excess of 60 cloud, application, voice and Internet service providers with their customers.

MTN has expanded its fibre to the home (FTTH) footprint to the Western Cape, and trenching has already commenced in the picturesque suburbs of Fresnaye and Bakoven as the operator prepares to connect approximately 1 000 homes with this high speed network before the end of the year.

Telkom fibre would be accessible to one million homes by March 2018, with half a million homes to have access by the end of 2016. Telkom already has the largest fibre to the home network in the country, with 38 000 homes currently having access.