Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) has won a tender from the Parkview Residents’ Association to build a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in Parkview and the neigbouring Greenside East in Johannesburg.
The agreement will result in the deployment of a “future proof” fibre network delivering Internet connections of up to 1Gbit/s to residents and businesses in the area, the residents’ association said.
Parkview is the second suburb in Johannesburg after nearby Parkhurst to issue a tender for the supply of an FTTH network to serve residents.
“We are delighted that DFA will be providing Parkview residents a high-quality FTTH network in Parkview and that leading Internet service providers will be offering Internet services on an open-access network enabling real choice and competition in the suburb,” said resident Indra de Lanerolle, who heads the project, called ConnectParkview.
“We are looking forward to working with them to make Parkview a connected suburb for all — providing great community services to schools and public spaces in Parkview,” he said.
The project represents one of the most important upgrades of the infrastructure in Parkview for many years, the residents’ association said. “It is one that will add value to the residents’ lives for years to come.”
Planning for the construction of the network will commence immediately, with the aim of completing the fibre installations within four months.
The residents’ association, together with DFA, will allow a number of service providers to offer services to the residents, including Vodacom, Vox Telecom, XDSL, Cybersmart and MWeb.
The suburb has chosen an open-access model. The association explains that this means that DFA will only operate and maintain the infrastructure while making it available to all service providers on an equal access basis.
“DFA is charging ISPs less than Telkom does to access the network,” the association says.
“This means that residents will get much better services at costs starting lower than current equivalent ADSL prices.”
10Mbit/s, 50Mbit/s and 100Mbit/s services will be available. “We expect entry level prices to be less than R600 including data for much better quality and speed than is available on ADSL.”
DFA has guaranteed that they will not increase their charges to service providers for five years. “This benefit combined with open access should ensure that residents and businesses continue to benefit from price and service competition not just now but in the future.”
DFA will dig trenches in Parkview’s streets to run cables throughout the suburb. Each house will get a small box mounted on its outside wall with a fibre cable inside it. After this, residents can get a connection in their houses by contacting one of the service providers, who will arrange for installation of a small box inside homes. — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media
