State-owned Internet infrastructure provider Broadband Infraco will launch in the third week of November, offering wholesale access to its network.

Infraco CEO Dave Smith says the company’s first phase has involved developing networks that the commercial Internet providers can use to bring services to their customers.

Smith says that over the coming financial year the company will complete the last few pieces of its national network, meshing together some of the more popular routes.

Formed in 2006, Infraco has had something of a turbulent start and its mandate from government has changed several times. It was finally licensed to offer wholesale capacity.

Smith says the company is now looking to the private sector to form partnerships, instead of replicating networks.

“Instead of building multiple cables to Mtunzini, why not consolidate and build it together. It makes more sense.”

Mtunzini, on KwaZulu-Natal’s north coast, hosts the landing stations for the SA-Far East, Seacom and the East African Submarine System cables.

Smith says partnerships like these will reduce the cost of bandwidth for consumers. “You need such a large capital investment to increase the coverage of these networks. What we need now is economies of scale.”

Though Infraco will launch its first commercial products in November, there are concerns the company isn’t sustainable.

Wholesale access prices have plummeted in recent years, with Smith estimating prices to be 62% lower than they were in 2009. — Candice Jones, TechCentral