Fibre connectivity moving to mainstream

Always available, affordable, fast fibre-optic Internet connectivity is rapidly becoming a viable option for South African businesses of all sizes. It`s set to become the connectivity option of choice for many within the next few years.

That`s the view of Andre Joubert, GM of MWEB Business, who says the arrival of the international data cables to the country`s shores resulted in a concerted effort by many players to improve connectivity within South Africa.

Metropolitan councils are getting involved and are opening their networks for private use within their borders, while many private companies are working furiously to get their national and city-wide fibre-optic cable networks up and running as quickly as possible.

This, he says, will result in the further transformation of the business connectivity arena.

According to Joubert, fixed-line Ethernet-based fibre connectivity services provide a highly reliable and continuously available connectivity option with the equivalent of leased line performance, but which scale more easily and affordably, should capacity need to increase.

"One tends to forget that just a few years ago, fast, reliable broadband connectivity was available only to those that could afford, and justify, the high cost of leased line connectivity. It was the introduction of business-class ADSL, and particularly uncapped business-class ADSL, that finally gave businesses a viable alternative.

"Now, with the quantity of fibre currently being put in the ground across the country, business-class broadband connectivity is being elevated to a whole new level in South Africa. In fact, high capacity fibre links from 2MB to 1GB are already available," he adds.

Joubert acknowledges that at this point, fibre connectivity is confined to relatively small areas. However, this is changing rapidly.

"Competition among providers to roll out and extend their own fibre-optic networks is hotting up, and this is starting to drive down the cost of fibre connectivity. This trend is likely to accelerate over the next 12 to 24 months.

"New fibre networks and links are coming on stream all the time. MWEB Business partners with many of these network providers, enabling us to extend our fibre connectivity offering to more and more businesses across a growing geographical area.

"For those businesses located in areas in which fibre connectivity is not available - or where the cost of a fibre link is still hard to justify - a Bonded ADSL solution remains a viable option," he concludes.