Just how much connectivity is being put in the ground in South African cities? There is much speculation, but little information. One of the key players in the physical roll-out of fibre-optic networks used by major telcos, Dark Fibre Africa, lifts the veil, courtesy of director RiICHARD CAME.

South Africa is experiencing major changes in its telecommunications market, following Altech’s court victory and the landing of the Seacom cable, two concrete signs that market liberalisation is becoming a reality.

Richard Came

Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) is keeping pace with these changes, and has already made rapid progress in creating a carrier-neutral dark fibre network in major metropolitan areas, with 350km of fibre cable laid in Johannesburg. Progress has been made with infrastructure in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town. DFA owns, builds, maintains, secures and monitors the dark fibre network infrastructure, which is then leased to telecommunications operators.

The company is working with a number of network operators, large and small, who recognise the value in shared network infrastructure, and is looking to conclude agreements with more users following the Altech ruling.



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Posted in the category: Strategy, Technology, Trends

South Africa will need to become Internet savvy in order to compete globally, argues ADRIAAN GIE, CEO of Plusto.com, a business-to-business e-trading platform launched to the SA, Indian and Chinese markets last month.

It is time for Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to change her stance on South Africa’s telecoms legislation.

While South Africa may be a leader in internet connectivity across Africa, the country lags behind countries such as Morocco, Egypt and Nigeria in terms of market competitiveness.

A severely controlled and conservative telecoms legislation that repels competition leads to other service providers being shut out of the market while Telkom holds South Africans at ransom by charging exorbitant connectivity fees.

For too long the Minister has stifled economic growth in South Africa by refusing private companies entry to the market. If government’s focus is on increasing trade and commerce between South Africa and the rest of the world, then this is not the way to go about it. In addition, the price of broadband in South Africa is exorbitant compared with international standards:



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Posted in the category: Economy, Technology, Trends

Telecommunications giant Ericsson will offer live demonstrations of its offerings for the next generation in wireless broadband technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE) , at AfricaCom 2008 in Cape Town next week.

A wide selection of Ericsson’s solutions will be on show at AfricaCom 2008 in Cape Town on 18 and 19 November 2008., including its ‘Full Service Broadband’, Managed Services and Multimedia Solutions, together with live demonstrations of its HSPA, Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Convergent Charging options.

“The LTE demonstration is likely to generate quite a large amount of interest this year, in particular,” observes Aingharan Kanagaratnam, senior manager: Radio Access Sales Support, market unit sub-Saharan Africa, “since it will show what people will be using this technology for and the exciting possibilities that exist when bandwidth is no longer a limitation.”



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Posted in the category: News, Technology, Trends

The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly closed in Johannesburg last week with decisions on a wide range of issues that will change the future direction of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry .
The role of information and communication technology (ICT) in climate change stands out among a range of key issues that the global telecommunications industry body has agreed to tackle in the coming years.

Members of the International Telecommunications Union, spanning the global ICT industry and administrations from across the world, asked for increased emphasis on key areas such as ICTs and climate change, the deployment of IPv6, accessibility to ICTs for persons with disabilities, conformance and interoperability testing, and encouraging academic participation in the ITU’s work.

Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) said in his closing speech: “We have received a strong message from our members that ITU is, and will remain the world’s pre-eminent global telecommunication and ICT standards body. And we also hear very clearly that ITU should continue on its mission to connect the world, and that bridging the standardization gap – by increasing developing country participation in our work – is an essential prerequisite to achieve this goal.”



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Posted in the category: News, Technology, Trends

The announcement last week that Naspers has put MWEB up for auction created a stir of surprise, but not shock. Arthur Goldstuck looks at the implications

Is the decision by Naspers to sell MWEB a vote of no confidence in the Internet? Hardly. If anything, it declares the opposite: a recognition that the Internet has become so pervasive, its best businesses will be built on what people do on the network, rather than on how people connect to it.

While it may not be a good thing for MWEB, it is probably a necessary thing as MWEB evolves from an ISP into a telecommunications company. MWEB is entering a new era in South African telecommunications and has little choice but to become an infrastructure owner – once the regulatory environment allows it. Naspers is traditionally in the content space, and has avoided owning the plumbing that makes it all work. It will be a painful divorce, but good for the kids.

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Posted in the category: News, Technology, Trends