26 April 2019

Open-access fibre telecommunications firm Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) has marked its first network expansion into markets outside South Africa, by opening an office in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

The new Harare hub will be headed up by Simon Chimutsotso, who has “extensive experience” in rolling out telecoms infrastructure in Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa. DFA said it plans to roll out a highspeed fibre network in Zimbabwe, which will be made available on a wholesale open-access basis.

“We have rolled out network infrastructure in all of the major South African metropolitan areas and have extended our footprint to large and small towns, amounting to over 13,000km of ducting space,” said DFA executive for strategy, mergers, acquisitions and innovation Vino Govender. “Our entry into Zimbabwe is in line with our strategic intent of expanding into sub-Saharan and other African markets.”

Chimutsotso said DFA Zimbabwe will “build on the extensive experience from its South African counterpart to give, among others, Zimbabwean telecoms operators and internet service providers access to the same premium connectivity infrastructure that DFA South Africa is known for”.

He added: “We are excited to build our customer base in this new territory and at the investment opportunity and value to be derived by the telecoms sector of Zimbabwe and the economy at large.”