Johannesburg - Fibre broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps from telecommunications company Vumatel are coming to Johannesburg’s Greenside and Parktown North suburbs by May 2015.
This is after Johannesburg suburb Parkhurst earlier this year became the first suburb in South Africa to get a Vumatel fibre broadband network.
Fibre broadband offers faster internet speeds than traditional ADSL lines. Other advantages of fibre broadband include symmetrical, or equal, download and upload speeds and less degradation in network quality.
Vumatel received the go-ahead from Parkhurst's community members to build the suburb's fibre network. Security companies, meanwhile, also plan on using Parkhurst’s fibre network to establish more advanced Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera systems in the suburb.
Vumatel’s networks are of an open access nature, which means that Vumatel provides the infrastructure layer while internet service providers (ISPs) then sell packages over the network.
"We've done Parkhurst now; it's pretty much done,” Niel Schoeman, CEO of Vumatel, told Fin24.
“We'll finish the last homes in February and then next ones to start on the back-end of February are Greenside and Parktown North,” he said.
Schoeman told Fin24 that Vumatel has connected up to 900 homes in Parkhurst thus far, and that “a substantial amount” of households in the area have taken to fibre broadband internet services on the network.
A 4Mbps uncapped line on Vumatel’s network, for instance, can cost up to R199 per month while a 100Mbps can be priced monthly at around R1 000, Schoeman told Fin24.
Suburbs have to apply for Vumatel’s broadband services and the company determines demand via its website.
Schoeman told Fin24 that Vumatel needs a “30% moral commitment” from residents of an area that they’ll use the network.
Vumatel, in a press statement, has further said that over 40 suburbs “are in a race against each other to become the next Vuma ‘fibrehood’”. The company plans to connect 42 suburbs with fibre networks over the next 18 months.
SA’s FTTH space lights up
Telecommunications company Telkom is also moving on fibre to the home (FTTH) broadband.
Earlier this month, Telkom announced that it is starting to roll-out its fibre broadband services to Groenkloof, Houghton, Eldoraigne, Parktown and Westcliff in Gauteng; Chelmsfordville, Dawncrest, and Winston Park in KwaZulu-Natal and Claremont, Bishops Court and Plattekloof in the Western Cape.
Meanwhile, Telkom’s promotional costs for its 24 month FTTH contracts are planned to include a 20Mbps line with 50GB data per month at R999 per month, 40Mbps with 100GB at R1 299 per month and a 100MBps line with 200 GB data for R1 799 per month.
Schoeman told Fin24 that competition from the likes of Vumatel is pushing Telkom to move on FTTH.
"They've (Telkom) under-invested because there's been no competition. I mean Neotel was supposed to have done this, but they went for the low-hanging fruit of the business community. So, there's been no pressure on Telkom,” Schoeman said.
"But two weeks after we won Parkhurst and announced our project, immediately Telkom announced their plans. So, competition again is a very good stimulus for the market to move the incumbent from their sort of intransigence at the moment,” he added.
Listen to Fin24 technology editor Gareth van Zyl's interview with Vumatel CEO Niel Schoeman:
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