One of South Africa’s most prominent upmarket estates, Dainfern, north of Fourways in Johannesburg, has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the installation of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband to 1 236 houses in the area.
The move comes after Telkom allegedly promised but failed to deliver high-speed VDSL copper-based broadband to the estate.
Fibre providers interested in the project have until 15 February 2016 to respond to the RFP issued by the Dainfern Homeowners Association.
In the RFP, the association says current broadband access in the estate is a mix of 3G and 4G mobile technology, iBurst and copper ADSL.
“The Telkom infrastructure upgrades to support VDSL have not materialised and connectivity has plateaued.”
The estate already has a dedicated fibre ring that is used for surveillance cameras and some internal homeowners’ association traffic.
The association says in its RFP that the successful fibre provider must connect a range of sites on the estate, including public spaces such as parks and club houses.
It must also allow for low-cost internal estate communication that will impact on access control for visitors, internal integration of residential alarms and integration of emergency alert systems for residents.
No aerial fibre or radio backhaul links will be permitted within the estate.
The homeowners’ association has also specified that the infrastructure be deployed on an open-access basis. And the successful provider must offer complimentary Wi-Fi access points in designated public areas. — (c) 2015 NewsCentral Media
