State-owned fibre-optic infrastructure company Broadband Infraco will spend $15 million to upgrade and modernise its network, as it positions itself to deliver the best broadband services in SA.
The company has selected German-based Coriant to modernise and enhance its nationwide fibre-optic backbone network. Coriant describes itself as a global supplier of software-defined networking-enabled end-to-end solutions that enable network operators to cost-efficiently scale network capacity.
According to Broadband Infraco, Coriant's solutions will enable it to cost-effectively meet increasing customer demand for high-capacity services while enhancing network scalability, efficiency and reliability.
Over the years, Broadband Infraco's future has been hanging in the balance as it struggled to stay afloat and fulfil its mandate of increasing broadband access and affordability in SA.
Murmurs of a potential buyout and partnership with its main competitor, pleading for government funding, and continued financial losses added to the company's woes.
It previously indicated it is working to turn operations around, and the maximising of fibre assets and expanding its suite of wholesale services throughout its nationwide network can be seen as the first step towards that goal.
Gift Zowa, Broadband Infraco CTO, says the company's vision is to "be the provider of choice for end-to-end communication services", upholding the principles of open access and being carrier-neutral.
"It is with this goal in mind that the company continues to prove its place among the best in the industry by keeping up with the constant evolution of bandwidth-intensive applications requirements, with complete understanding that a robust and flexible backbone network is critical to helping our customers keep pace in this rapidly changing landscape."
The company notes it is not changing its fibre-optic network, rather the project focuses on upgrading current transmission equipment, for which Coriant is already one of the service providers on Broadband Infraco's core network.
"This is a continuation of a project initiated in 2013...The current process is therefore an upgrade on the existing base technology."
Puleng Kwele, chief executive of Broadband Infraco, states: "We remain committed to delivering best-in-class broadband services that help accelerate economic development throughout South Africa and ensuring downstream cost and efficiency benefits for our customers."
She adds: "Coriant's state-of-the-art technology is playing a key role as we upgrade our infrastructure to support a new generation of broadband applications and wholesale services, including 100G."
The nationwide network modernisation exercise is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2017.
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