Subscribe
  • Home
  • /
  • Networking
  • /
  • Intensified efforts to make antenna-based Internet a reality in South Africa

Intensified efforts to make antenna-based Internet a reality in South Africa

Samuel Mungadze
By Samuel Mungadze, Africa editor
Johannesburg, 07 May 2021

The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), an initiative of the Department of Science and Technology, is financially backing FibrePoynt, a Gauteng-based start-up that is developing antenna-based high-speed fixed Internet for low-income communities.

FibrePoynt is developing an Internet/wireless communication system the TIA says can be an alternative or supplementary to fibre-to-the-home underground, or overhead cable technology.

The project comes on the back of president Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that government is “developing innovative new models to provide low-income households with access to affordable, high-speed Internet through connection subsidies for broadband and support for public WiFi hotspots”.

Since 2016, South Africans have been complaining about the high price of data through the #DataMustFall social media banner, a challenge which the TIA says will partly be addressed by the FibrePoynt solution.

The agency says the Internet solution will allow middle-income, peri-urban and township households to connect to the Internet, which was not possible with current technologies.

According to the TIA, the FibrePoynt technology uses passive beam forming, beam pattern diversity and beam shaping to get the best possible signal to the home units, which then provide WiFi for the end-user devices to connect to.

“The innovation will also solve signal strength problems and costs typically found in existing ‘last mile’ antenna wireless rollouts. The aim is to enable Internet network owners to deliver Internet to dwellings at a lower cost than currently possible,” says Sipho Dikweni, TIA portfolio commercialisation manager.

“FibrePoynt enables the rollout of fixed wireless broadband network without trenching underground fibre in the last-mile connection to homes; thus, reducing infrastructure costs by more than 50%. The technology promises a cost-effective, faster rollout, and high-speed alternative deployment of broadband infrastructure in areas that were previously deemed unfeasible.

“The technology is not only backed by an innovative and sustainable business model but an inclusive model which gives local entrepreneurs skills and the opportunity to operate and rollout network to their respective communities. Local empowerment is the critical antidote to socio-economic ills. We call upon follow-on funders and network operators to support the full-scale commercialisation of this exciting and impactful technology.”

FibrePoynt CEO Eduard Walker says a solution like the one being developed by the team could make sure the neglected obtain real Internet in their homes.

With the initial funding from the TIA, Walker says, FibrePoynt has since launched HomePoynt, a derivative innovation spun out of the core FibrePoynt wireless technology.

Walker notes that a solution like HomePoynt is critical as “the spread of coronavirus has laid bare the need to get everyone connected to high-speed Internet.

“We want to use this innovation to tackle digital inequality. HomePoynt is an innovative last-mile connectivity solution that has the potential to bring down Internet costs to as low as R89 a month for uncapped WiFi. The technology has been developed with a key focus on townships, peri-urban and small towns, thus closing the digital divide in under-served areas.

“HomePoynt connects users to broadband core networks in a peer-to-peer setup and provides wireless Internet service for homes and public areas, where there is already backhaul coverage but no end-user access.”

Share