120,000 new fibre subscriptions in SA by 2018
New data forecasts that the number of fibre-to- the-home/building (FTTH/B) subscriptions in South Africa will reach 127,000 by the end of 2018.
The South African entertainment and media outlook: 2014 – 2018, published by financial services company PwC, pointed to about 7,000 FTTH/B subscriptions in South Africa at the end of 2013.
Neotel is one operator to offer such services, which are aimed for the business market at present, PwC said.
However, it noted that new FTTH/B deployments by the big mobile operators MTN and Vodacom, as well as Telkom and Dark Fibre Africa would fuel a spike in subscriptions over the next few years.
On Wednesday, Vodacom Business announced the launch of its FTTB services in South Africa, with the initial rollout phase coming to selected business parks in Gauteng, Cape Town, and Durban.
Vodacom reached an agreement to acquire Neotel for R7 billion in May 2014: Neotel’s focus is also on FTTx in the business market.
In September and October 2013, Telkom announced a programme to upgrade its DSL packages for direct business and residential customers, as well as for ISPs that re-sell Telkom’s services.
Additionally, the company announced plans to roll out FTTH services to more than 20 local suburbs by the end of 2014, PwC said.
After a successful pilot at a gated estate, Monaghan Farms, near Johannesburg, MTN announced that it had connected its first FTTH customers in June 2014.
A rollout to other high-end residential communities, as well to high-density urban areas, is under way. The service offers speeds of up to 100Mbps, PwC’s report said.
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