Bitco has expanded its core distribution fibre ring throughout eight of the nine provinces.
This is according to Jarryd Chatz, CEO of the local Internet service provider, speaking to ITWeb about the company's latest fibre connection expansion to 42 new regions around the country.
He adds the advantage of maintaining its own independent national fibre and wireless network has enabled the company to increase coverage swiftly and to where it is needed most.
According to Chatz, the new locations will cover eight of the nine provinces, excluding the northern Limpopo province. The new areas include Ga-Rankuwa in Gauteng and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.
"There is very little infrastructure in Limpopo at the moment and there isn't much uptake as yet. BitCo is not yet in a position to build our own fibre network [in the area]. We play with the likes of DFA [Dark Fibre Africa] which leases us dark fibre, where we light it up and connect the customers ourselves. Although, that said, we do entertain potential customers who may be out of our coverage area. In this instance, we see if it's possible to get it from an off-net provider."
He explains the Limpopo decision is as a result of the company exercising extreme caution when it comes to passing off costs to customers. "Leasing fibre from one of the larger companies would be costly, and this will not suit the consumer. However, as the industry grows, we see that the pricing also decreases, so the possibilities are there."
The expansion in the other eight provinces, according to Chatz, will be done in an arranged process where the fibre will be connected one area at a time. "At this point, the network is live and they are all going in so this is most likely to increase our overheads on dark fibre by between R1 million to R1.5 million more. Obviously we are doing this before we have actual subscribers on our network, which is a calculated risk. It also helps that we sell to resellers and wholesalers so it aids with the footprint expansion."
Chatz highlights that the advantage of being competitive allows the company to subsidise the cost of this expansion through the existing network revenue. "Obviously, because the expansion is not in the most metropolitan areas, we expect the uptake to take a bit longer. It will most likely take an estimate of two to four years to actually get the recurring revenue within those regions to cover the recurring cost to get back to the data centre."
BitCo's fibre revenue increased 225% year-on-year from May 2016 to May 2017, he notes.
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