Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) announced today that it has embarked on a R400 million fibre network infrastructure expansion project to enhance their provision of connectivity hardware.
The investment will allow high-speed connectivity to more businesses and contribute to the country’s digital transformation efforts, enabling greater access to online services and improving economic growth. The project has been in trial phase since February and is now being rolled out at scale.
The infrastructure upgrade, which will be carried out in three phases over an estimated period of 18 months, will ensure faster delivery of network services to customers and improved network performance, while providing a scalable solution to meet increasing demand for connectivity services from customers.
“Since DFA first launched its FTTB connectivity services in 2015, our business customer base has grown and evolved considerably,” says Andreas Uys, Chief Technology Officer at DFA. “DFA is investing heavily in enhancing and upgrading existing infrastructure environment to ensure we are able to deliver high volumes of FTTB connectivity and provide customers with a consistently high standard of service delivery.”
DFA offers managed connectivity services, also known as the ‘data link layer’, which operates on a flat node-to-node basis using dedicated connections that provide a direct and secure network connection. As part of the upgrade project, DFA will deploy 800 additional Dry Underground Distribution Cabinets (DUDC) units. These units have been developed and manufactured in South Africa to DFA’s specifications.
The additional units will dramatically shorten the distance that data travels from the customer and over the network using dedicated cables, ensuring the shortest possible installation times. Customers can also look forward to reduced downtime during repairs and maintenance activities.
The deployment of the new DUDC units is designed to accommodate future growth and demand on the network, with the ability to scale up fibre deployment to meet demand as it increases.
“The additional DUDC units and dedicated cables aggregate traffic closer to the customer, which at the end of the day means faster deployment and installation and our customers can expect a significant improvement in their connectivity experience,” continues Uys. “It remains a major priority of ours to maintain the industry-leading quality DFA is known for, which the latest upgrades to our back haul fibre infrastructure will ensure well into the future.”
MAZIV, the parent company for fibre infrastructure providers DFA and Vumatel, has invested significantly in upgrading their overall network footprint and infrastructure.
Vumatel recently achieved significant milestones by passing over 2 million homes, while also extending their network to over 50,000kms of fibre laid. Vuma increased their coverage by passing 1 million homes within the last three and half years in underserviced, lower income areas. Combined with Dark Fibre Africa’s 15,000kms of fibre, MAZIV’s fibre reach is extensive throughout South Africa.
“The accelerated expansion of our network into underserved areas embodies the MAZIV vision and values. We believe that high quality broadband is critical to allow all South Africans to access opportunities on the global stage. We have rolled out coverage in areas like Soweto, Khayalitsha, Umlazi and many more,” Dewald Booysen, Chief Operations Officer at Vumatel, said.
“These are traditionally overlooked communities. Vuma’s approach is also community-orientated and enables us to work with the community to overcome challenges that have traditionally hampered efforts. Our commitment to the community is also driven by our vision to connect every school we pass with a free 1GB connection, and we have now connected over 700 schools.”
Booysen also mentioned the recent launch of their ground-breaking partnership with Huawei to test 50GB GPON services on the VUMA network.
“This is an exciting move to future-proof our network and prepare for next-generation services and demands that our customers will be seeking.”
