Local open access dark fibre infrastructure provider, Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), will be deploying a 27km fibre infrastructure in Mossel Bay to the value of R18-million.

Inset: Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), will be deploying a 27km fibre infrastructure in Mossel Bay to the value of R18-million. CEO Gustav Smit says this infrastructure is open to all licensed players, on equal terms. Any service provider, licensed to do so by ICASA, may rent fibres from DFA for their own transmission and backbone infrastructure purposes (Photo: Mossel Bay Advertiser).

DFA provides the infrastructure that enables licensed operators like Vodacom, MTN and Cell C, as well as ISPs like MWEB and Internet Solutions (IS) to give communities access to the network.

The socio-economic benefits of fibre optic networks are vast, affordable broadband contributes to increased economic activity.

The company started rolling out its network in metropolitan areas in October 2007 and has already laid in excess of 6 200km of infrastructure. This forms part of a R3.5-billion national fibre network that will increase bandwidth and reduce Internet costs significantly.

The company's CEO, Gustav Smit, says this infrastructure is open to all licensed players, on equal terms.

"DFA assumes the role of physical infrastructure developer, funds the rollout and provides all operators with a first-class secure ducting infrastructure on which licensed operators can build their services.

Any service provider, licensed to do so by ICASA, may rent fibres from DFA for their own transmission and backbone infrastructure purposes.

"Our footprint extends nationally and links with the SEACOM, EASSy, SAFE and the SAT3 cables at Mtunzini in KwaZulu-Natal and links to the WACS cable at Yzerfontein and the SAT 3 cable at Melkbosstrand in the Western Cape," he explains.

He says expansion of communications infrastructure brings about new business opportunities that are dependent on broadband. "Open Access broadband also stimulates competition within the telecommunications market, ultimately reducing Internet costs. DFA is here to provide a long-term sustainable solution to the local community.

"South Africans simply don't know what 20Mbps or 100Mbps to the home means. An opportunity needs to be created for users to test drive serious broadband and ISPs need to play a leading role in mobilising communities," he concludes.

DFA assumes the role of physical infrastructure developer, funds the roll out and, on completion, provides all operators with a first class secure ducting infrastructure on which licensed operators can build their services. The deployment of metro and long haul open access ducting, optimised for fibre network deployment, will enable larger users of communications capacity to enjoy logical separation and ownership of communications capacity, while sharing the same physical right of way and access routes with other carriers.