JSE-listed PC distribution giant Mustek has signed an exclusive deal with m2fx, a British fibre-optic manufacturer.
The agreement sees Mustek providing the South African cabling industry with the full Miniflex range.
According to Mustek, with the fast arrival of cross-Atlantic fibre cables, from the east coast (EASSy and Seacom) and west coast (WACS and SAex) of Africa, an exciting era has arrived in the communications market for the continent, bringing with it an abundance of new broadband options.
“Considering the massive drive to install broadband technology and supply fibre solutions into homes and businesses, we believe this will change the whole FTTx market approach within southern Africa and eventually Africa,” says Hein Engelbrecht, MD at Mustek.
“Mustek has recognised this as a great opportunity for our market. We are thrilled to bring this solution to local cabling companies, offering major time- and cost-savings from both a labour and installation perspective.”
The distributor also notes that broadband fibre-optical network expansion is driven predominantly by the major cellular network companies. The need to implement new high-speed communication technologies, such as 4G, is also fuelling the need for faster and higher-capacity networks, it adds.
The huge explosion of optical-fibre networks provides the infrastructure and platform for the next two major shifts in broadband supply.
The first shift Mustek is seeing is in the fibre-to-the-business or -building (FTTB) market, which has already begun. “Businesses are taking full advantage of cheaper available broadband or optical-fibre networks connecting their businesses directly to their ISPs.”
The second shift, the company adds, still to really take off in Africa, will be fibre-to-the-home, already common in first-world countries.
“Our core focus is to supply solutions that make fibre use robust, compact, simple to use and cost-effective - whether it is for the home, the telecommunications market, data comms or the transportation and aviation market,” says Martin Gossling, VP sales and marketing at m2fx.
“Costs are driven down by less skilled labour and specialist equipment required onsite combined with easy-to-install and durable designs.”
Engelbrecht concludes: “Since the arrival of Miniflex into the market a couple of months ago, a number of customers in SA have already experienced seamless and successful implementations, fully reaping the rewards of this technology.
“We believe that this could be just the product that the local market has been waiting for to really kick-start and fuel last-mile fibre.”
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