Pay-as-you-go fibre provider Fibertime is targeting to reach one million South African homes by the middle of next year, if all goes according to plan.
So said Alan Knott-Craig Jr, founder of Fibertime, speaking at the Sentech Africa Tech Week Conference, held this week, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Knott-Craig Jr was one of the keynote speakers at the conference, where he detailed his entrepreneurial journey, business ventures along the way and what led to starting Fibertime.
The business, with roots in Kayamandi, Stellenbosch, has expanded from 10 000 homes in March 2024 to 420 000 homes currently, in 13 cities and seven provinces, he told the audience.
Fibertime is now looking to scale further, said the founder. “A million homes with five people per home − it’s five million people who have affordable [100Mbps] uncapped internet, R5 a day internet.”
He noted the initiative has improved lives by enabling remote work, education and economic opportunities. “A lot of opportunities are presented once fibre goes into a community. The affordable internet unlocks home security, smart meters for water and electricity, and a host of other things. Overall, it’s good business.”
Knott-Craig Jr is a prominent South African entrepreneur, author and advocate for digital inclusion, known for his efforts to expand internet access in underserved communities across the country.
Knott-Craig Jr’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2003 with the founding of Cellfind, one of SA’s first mobile location-based service providers. He served as CEO until 2005. In 2006, he became CEO of iBurst, building one of SA’s largest wireless broadband networks.
After relocating to Stellenbosch in 2009, he founded World of Avatar in 2010, an investment house for mobile applications in Africa. Through this venture, he acquired and became CEO of Mxit, Africa’s largest social network at the time. He left Mxit and World of Avatar in 2012.
In 2013, he founded Project Isizwe, a non-profit company managing the deployment of the largest public free WiFi network in the country. The following year, he established Herotel, aiming to consolidate wireless internet service providers and expand broadband access in rural areas.
He explained that the motivation to start Fibertime, which he founded in 2022, is to connect everyone to the internet, focusing only on communities in the townships.
The pay-as-you-go fibre model started in Kayamandi township in the Western Cape, offering uncapped 100Mbps internet for R5 per day. It’s now available in more South African townships, such as Alexandra, Mamelodi, Mfuleni and Kraaifontein in the Western Cape, as well as KwaNobuhle in Kariega (formerly Uitenhage).
“I think other fibre companies are starting to adopt what we're doing, so more fibre companies are going to the townships, which is quite encouraging.
“There are officially 17 million homes in South Africa; four million of them are leafy suburbs and 13 million in the townships. There’s probably more like 20 million in the townships. As you connect them into the economy…it has enormous impact both socially and economically.”
To deploy its network, Fibertime partnered with Liquid Intelligent Technologies for transmission, Nokia for routers, Finnfund as a key investor and Rand Merchant Bank as a strategic partner.
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