Major R400 million fibre upgrade for South Africa

Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) has begun its R400 million fibre network infrastructure expansion project in South Africa, parent company Maziv announced in a statement on Tuesday (15 August).

Dark Fibre Africa operates as an open-access infrastructure provider providing fibre interconnectivity between Internet service providers, operators, and clients across South Africa.

The infrastructure upgrade, which will be carried out in three phases over an estimated period of 18 months, will ensure faster network services to customers and improved network performance while providing a scalable solution to meet the increasing demand for connectivity services in South Africa.

Maziv noted that the project has been in the trial phase since February and is now being rolled out at scale.

 As part of the upgrade project, DFA will deploy 800 additional Dry Underground Distribution Cabinets (DUDC) units. These units have been developed and manufactured in South Africa to DFA’s specifications, said Maziv.

“The additional units will dramatically shorten the distance that data travels from the customer and over the network using dedicated cables, ensuring the shortest possible installation times. Customers can also look forward to reduced downtime during repairs and maintenance activities,” the parent company added.

Maziv also noted that the deployment of the new DUDC units is designed to accommodate future growth and demand on the network, with the ability to scale up fibre deployment to meet demand as it increases.

“DFA is investing heavily in enhancing and upgrading the existing infrastructure environment to ensure we are able to deliver high volumes of FTTB (fibre-to-the-building) connectivity and provide customers with a consistently high standard of service delivery.

“It remains a major priority of ours to maintain the industry-leading quality DFA is known for, which the latest upgrades to our backhaul fibre infrastructure will ensure well into the future,” said Andreas Uys, Chief Technology Officer at DFA.

DFA currently has around 15,000km of fibre across South Africa, and this R400 million investment will add extensively to Maziv’s fibre reach throughout the country.

Read: Government taps Telkom for broadband rollout in South Africa