Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) is acquiring SA-based last mile fibre solutions provider Conduct, for an undisclosed amount.
DFA, a local open access dark fibre infrastructure provider, says the acquisition will help overcome the last mile barrier and give enterprises across SA easy access to fibre connectivity. The company started rolling out its network in metropolitan areas in October 2007 and has already laid in excess of 7 300km of infrastructure that is open to all licensed players.
Conduct is a last mile fibre solutions provider offering an open access network to service providers, allowing them to deliver high-speed voice, video and data solutions.
The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of March, pending the necessary approvals.
Reshaad Sha, chief strategy officer at DFA, notes: "The Conduct acquisition gives us an overnight presence as a last mile provider and, importantly, puts into motion our strategy to connect as many customers to our fibre network as possible in a cost-effective way."
He adds the last mile fibre has been a barrier to entry for many businesses wanting to use a fibre-based connectivity solution, primarily due to the capital cost which had to be picked up either by the customer or the Internet service provider (ISP).
"We believe that by removing this initial capital outlay cost, we will begin to accelerate business fibre penetration, as the associated monthly rental will be within reach for most businesses."
According to Sha, the telecoms space has multiple challenges. "The largest area that we could potentially have an impact on is in the increasing adoption of high-speed connectivity solutions for businesses, ISPs and mobile network operators. We are starting to address these challenges in the form of new products that are targeted at providing multiple efficiencies to service providers."
Sha notes DFA has identified a largely unmet need in the market for cost-effective fibre connectivity to enterprise customers.
"Our customers, being ISPs and telecoms operators, therefore, require an underlying solution that accelerates business connectivity more economically," he says. "DFA has focused its efforts on building a product set to lower or remove this barrier to entry."
Quick deployment
Johan Pretorius, CEO of Conduct, notes: "Conduct's last-mile network enables enterprises to get access to fibre very rapidly. Combining this last mile infrastructure with DFA's metro network provides ISPs instant access to new customers while businesses benefit from fibre. Suddenly, there are fast, reliable, competitive services at their fingertips."
DFA expects its last mile strategy to be enhanced with the acquisition of Conduct, allowing it to further speed up the delivery of last mile fibre connectivity to its customers, while maintaining the recipe Conduct has developed over the past two years.
"The model that Conduct used for the last mile connectivity is very efficient in connecting business districts. We are expecting to extend this model to business districts throughout SA where we have a metro network footprint," Sha notes.
DFA, through its ISP partner network, aims to connect up to 10 000 business customers to its fibre network by March 2015.
The company will make all the capital investments required to build out this last mile fibre network where it currently has a metro network presence across SA, Sha concludes.
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