Vodacom has had a booming response from local blue chips looking for fibre connectivity.
According to Wally Beelders, chief officer of Vodacom Business Africa, the company has been commissioned to connect 60 enterprises to its newly-completed metro fibre network using a fibre last mile.
Vodacom Business started the roll out of its metro rings almost two years ago, and has circled 11 metros in the optical technology. Beelders says the company has seen high interest in fibre connectivity from the financial, retail and manufacturing enterprises.
The 720km of metro fibre will link to the company's national backbone, which it is rolling out in conjunction with Neotel and rival business MTN.
“SA's telecommunications landscape is going to be dramatically reshaped over the next few years, as the price of bandwidth plummets and newly empowered businesses and consumers increase their appetite for hosted services and applications,” says Beelders.
However, Vodacom says its own data centre, in Midrand, has picked up a large number of clients, with the utilisation “exceeding the company's expectations”.
Vodacom's fibre last mile option may make local businesses more inclined to take on a hosting opportunity. “When reliable, fast, cost-effective bandwidth becomes widely available, more and more firms and individuals are likely to choose online application hosting and data storage.”
The company says there is now room to start activating fibre last mile connectivity for the smaller business. “For smaller companies and entrepreneurs, the price of bandwidth is probably one of the last barriers to moving most of their applications to an online hosted environment.”
Related stories:
Bringing fibre to the home
Neotel ventures into Africa
Share
