Frica’s townships

N ALEXANDRA

of townships doesn’t lend itself to the typical buried, trenched solution, so we’ll use aerial fibre.

“The price is possible thanks to a combination of technologies, the potential number of customers per square kilometre and the fact that it will also be potentially contended up to 20 times, meaning 20 customers will use the same 100Mbps line. So each customer is always guaranteed 5Mbps upward, but the probability of getting more like a 20Mbps service is high. Not everyone will be using the same line at the same time.”

Vumatel will also use its fibre to provide Wi-Fi in public spaces in the townships. This service will be possible, partly, thanks to corporate social investment from its 49% shareholder, Investec.

“We’ve looked at a broader Wi-Fi deployment model but we don’t think it creates the abundance that closes the digital gap,” says Schoeman. “You can use the analogy of water: Wi-Fi hotspots create wells where people can collect water whereas, if you provide piped water to homes, you see people growing gardens and using it in an unlimited way. We want to go deep into every home, uncapped, at high speed, and see if we can make a difference.”

Unlike the suburban model, where Vumatel lays the fibre and leaves it to internet service providers to deliver access, it will initially provide access itself. It will piggyback on the Dark Fibre Africa grid that will link it to the broader internet and undersea cables, but will acquire and distribute access and data services itself.

“We first want to see if we can make the model work rather than having to add additional margins for service providers. Our philosophy is always open access so, if it works, we will see if we can let service providers offer innovative services.”

Schoeman believes it will be

Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on and on YouTube. Niel Schoeman Vumatel CEO

possible for Vumatel to bring fibre within reach of another 10 million people in the next couple of years, at a cost of between R2 billion and R3 billion.

“We want to see if we can kick off another catalyst event like Parkhurst and start a storm: to see if we can bring abundant connectivity to low-income homes.”