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Questions over high-speed internet firm

Johannesburg - A new company wanting to offer lightning-fast broadband internet at about 10 times the current available speed has made waves, but not always for the right reasons.

Over the next six years i3 Africa hopes to connect about 2.5m households to fibre-optic networks.

It envisages spending R5bn to R6bn on the network, focusing on Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein. The company promises a speed of at least 100 megabits per second [Mbps].

At this speed a movie could be downloaded from the iInternet in the blink of an eye.

i3 Africa will use technology from the controversial British i3 Group, which is expected to take a 15% stake in the local group.
 
The British company made similar promises in England, Scotland and Australia, but the project failed because of contractual and technical problems.

The British Serious Fraud Office is investigating the affairs of a funder of one of its previous divisions.

In January the company announced that it would be selling its assets to a consortium headed by its chief executive.

Mark Jackson, editor of the British industry website ISPReview.co.uk, told Sake24 said he had misgivings about the sudden emergence of a "new" enterprise called i3 Africa which had clear ties to the i3 Group – despite having a different management – and which wanted to do something in South Africa that had been tried in England.

Cornelis Groesbeek, the chief executive of i3 Africa, said the company was aware of media reports about the British company, and that the group would respond to these in the coming week.

He admitted that some of i3’s projects had failed, but said the South African company, whose links to the British group were still uncertain, had tested the technology for 18 months. He said it had done all the necessary tests and obtained the required certificates.

i3 Africa’s main shareholder is the National Empowerment Fund with a 23% stake. The company is currently busy with a pilot project in Durban which, according to i3 Africa’s plans, is also the only city that will initially be linked to its fibre-optic network.

The company hopes to have laid a network in that city by the end of next year.

The waterproof fibre-optic cables are placed in water and sewerage pipes connected to houses, rather than by digging up streets. This means that they can be laid more quickly and much more cheaply than previously.

But placing the cables in water pipes requires the ongoing cooperation of local authorities – which is what sank the British company.

- Sake24.com

For business news in Afrikaans, go to www.sake24.com.
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