Cash rich Vox subsidiary targets fibre to 85,000 homes in Gauteng and the Cape
Open access fibre network provider Frogfoot Networks has secured funding to deploy fibre to the home (FTTH) to 15,000 homes in Gauteng and the Western Cape as part of a 24-month roll-out programme.
A wholly-owned subsidiary of integrated ICT and connectivity provider Vox, Frogfoot Networks said its revenue exceeds R1 billion per annum and is funded by Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), Investec and Metier Capital.
“At the beginning of 2016, we embarked on an aggressive FTTH expansion programme and committed to deploy FTTH to 85,000 homes. We are currently in the process of building the infrastructure to over 16,000 homes, and with the additional funding are now able to fast-track the deployment to 15,100 homes in 2017,” said Abraham van der Merwe, co-founder and MD of Frogfoot.
He said that 2018 will see the deployment of the remaining 53,300 homes, although it is likely that this figure will grow substantially as the demand for FTTH continues.
“There is a massive appetite for fibre in South Africa, which is mainly driven by the current state of the existing cabled network that is simply not meeting the needs of the consumer. Today, users want high speed, uninterrupted connectivity at work and home, and it is this frustration that is driving fervent demand.”
Van der Merwe said that as traditional content consumption habits evolve to become increasingly push based, the bandwidth requirements can only realistically be delivered over fibre.
“Viewing push content using a DSL link is challenging and while switching to high-speed LTE is the obvious option, it is a pricey alternative. Also, LTE – fixed or Wi-Fi – will never give the bandwidth capacity that fibre offers and simply won’t meet demand,” he said.
Frogfoot Networks puts the addressable FTTH market at between three million and six million homes, with the group claiming to have 2% market saturation.
Read: Vodacom unveils home fibre expansion plans and new prices
Loading ...