Residents of the prominent Johannesburg suburb of Blairgowrie have voted overwhelmingly in favour of telecommunications start-up Vumatel rolling out fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband in their neighbourhood.
“The Blairgowrie Community Association (BCA) is pleased to announce that the Blairgowrie residents have elected to endorse Vumatel as the preferred provider to install FTTH infrastructure in Blairgowrie,” the residents’ association said on Wednesday.
At an annual general meeting on 12 May, the BCA subcommittee on fibre optics presented two potential preferred suppliers to residents. The association decided to engage with residents and businesses via an online survey to allow them to vote and choose their preferred supplier.
“The subcommittee has received the results of this survey and an overwhelming majority — 75% — have voted in favour of Vumatel,” the association said. “The BCA will, therefore, support Vumatel in its marketing efforts to reach the roll-out threshold.”
The association said it has already surpassed 50% of the needed numbers to ensure the roll-out takes place.
“After removing duplicate votes, 603 usable votes were used in the identification. This is statistically viable as the response rate was in line with the expectations from the BCA’s fibre-optics team and is enough on which to make a final decision.”
Vumatel, which is headquartered in Stellenbosch, has already rolled out fibre to residents of Parkhurst in Johannesburg and is now expanding its infrastructure to additional suburbs in the city, including Parktown North, Greenside, Killarney and Riviera. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media