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MTN reveals fibre plans

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 24 Apr 2014
Those living in SA's upmarket regions can look forward to next-generation Internet speeds this year.
Those living in SA's upmarket regions can look forward to next-generation Internet speeds this year.

SA's two main mobile players are set to take Internet speeds to the next level with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments this year.

MTN is the first to reveal its FTTH plans, with the release of a statement yesterday - about two weeks after the operator demonstrated its FTTH offering to residents of Monaghan Farm, an upmarket gated estate just north of Lanseria Airport (about 30km north of Johannesburg). Meanwhile, Vodacom has yet to reveal details of its FTTH plans.

MTN says it is now rolling out "aggressive deployment" of FTTH to high-density urban areas, like upmarket gated communities, boomed-off suburbs and high-rise buildings. The official commercial launch for the product in these areas is set for 1 June, with "advanced discussions" under way with several additional residential sites.

MTN says the rollout is demand-driven, and is an extension of its established fibre connectivity backbone, which utilises Gigabit Passive Optical Network technology, to business parks and residential estates in all major cities.

Connected homes

The estimated connectivity date for homes in the Monaghan Farm estate is mid-May, with in excess of 60% of the residents having signed up, says the operator. Offers vary based on desired Internet speed, ranging from 10Mbps to 100Mbps. MTN says speed trials at the pre-launch event on 12 April clocked up to 150.2Mbps. Earlier this year, MTN demonstrated lab trials of up to 1Gbps on its fibre network.

MTN claims the commercial delivery of FTTH capable of 100Mbps is a first in Africa.

The company did not reveal its pricing structure, saying this is only available to Monaghan Farm residents at this stage. "[Pricing] is negotiated on a case-by-case basis, dependant on the amount of infrastructure and civil engineering required for each estate."

Mike Fairon, GM of products and solutions at MTN SA, says he looks forward to FTTH opening the door to making "the connected home" - a sub-concept of the Internet of everything.

Vodacom says it is too early to give any concrete details on FTTH at this stage, but says it is actively rolling out fibre in business parks and gearing up to do the same in gated communities. "[Vodacom is] building the fibre backbones to make this possible."

In October, Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said Vodacom was going to "start building fibre to the home, fibre to the business and so on, and really start trying to play a bigger role in the fixed space".

Both Vodacom and MTN focused heavily on small to medium enterprises last year, with Vodacom now close to concluding exclusive buyout talks with fixed-line business operator Neotel.

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