Local open access dark fibre infrastructure provider, Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), has laid more than 5 000 kilometres of fibre infrastructure over the past four years. Entering the market as a rookie, DFA has evolved into the largest open access fibre infrastructure provider in southern Africa, with an expenditure plan in excess of R3 billion.
The company's CEO Gustav Smit says DFA now employs more than 200 permanent staff and in excess of 6 000 people through its business partners. “DFA is playing an important role of empowering communities through its business partners; they are required to use local labour from within the communities they are constructing in.”
“Besides the labour benefits, we also provide the infrastructure that enables licensed operators like Vodacom, MTN and Cell C to give communities access to the network. Our footprint extends nationally and links with the Seacom and the EASSy cables at Mthunzini, in KwaZulu-Natal, and links to the WACS cable at Yzerfontein and the SAT 3 cable at Melkbosstrand in the Western Cape,” he explains.
Long haul infrastructure accounts for approximately 20% of the infrastructure, while South Africa's highest-density metropolitan areas account for the balance. Gauteng metropolitan already boasts more than 1 800 kilometres of open fibre network, while Cape Town follows with approximately 800 kilometres, and Durban and Pretoria each with more than 600 kilometres. DFA plans to roll-out another 700 kilometres in secondary cities and towns before the end of 2012.
“The infrastructure is available.” Smit says it is now up to the Internet service providers (ISPs) to get fibre-based Internet connectivity to communities. “ISPs should be proactive in getting fibre rolled out to businesses and homes within South Africa. There is fibre in virtually every street in Sandton, you can fibre up every building there, but there has been little momentum from the ISP side.”
Smit has once again called on ISPs to start leading projects like these and said that ISPs must play a leading role to mobilise communities. “End-users simply don't know what 20Mbps or 100Mbps to the home is; an opportunity needs to be created for users to test drive serious broadband.”
“We are thankful to our business partners and to the communities that we work with. DFA is here to provide a long-term sustainable solution to communities, a project that will change the face of broadband in southern Africa.”
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Dark Fibre Africa (DFA)
Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), a local open access dark fibre infrastructure provider, specialises in the financing, building and installation of carrier neutral, open access, ducting infrastructure. The company started rolling out its network in metropolitan areas in October 2007 and has already laid in excess of 5 000 kilometres of infrastructure that is open to all licensed players, on equal terms.
This infrastructure is commissioned by licensed telecom and Internet operators, which provide high-speed voice, data and video services to customers. The underlying business principle is that of an independent 'open access' infrastructure. With DFA acting purely as landlord, the infrastructure is entirely operator neutral and does not differentiate between users.
The basis of the model is that DFA is building and managing a first-class physical infrastructure for any licensed operator to take advantage of. Licensed operators now have a ready-made infrastructure on which to build their differentiating converged services, bringing these services to market quicker, thereby enjoying earlier revenue generation.
There is a state-of-the-art network monitoring centre in Rivonia (Johannesburg) that provides operators with outsourced fibre network management services and offers continuous communication with clients should the unthinkable incident occur. Any service provider, licensed to do so by ICASA, may rent fibres from DFA for their own transmission and backbone infrastructure purposes.
DFA assumes the role of physical infrastructure developer, funds the roll-out, and on completion, provides all operators with a first-class secure ducting infrastructure on which licensed operators can build their services. The deployment of metro and long haul open access ducting, optimised for fibre network deployment, will enable larger users of communications capacity to enjoy logical separation and ownership of communications capacity, while sharing the same physical right of way and access routes with other carriers.
DFA is extremely proud of claiming the prestigious 'New Entrant of the Year' award at the annual AfricaCom awards ceremony in 2009. In 2010, DFA was awarded the 'Best Cost Efficiency Solution for Africa' for the 'Fibre to the Tower'. The AfricaCom awards recognise excellence and outstanding performance in the African telecommunications industry over a 12-month period.
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