21 August 2023
Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) has begun a R400 million fibre network infrastructure expansion project, according to parent company Maziv.
It said this was to “enhance provision of connectivity hardware to allow high-speed connectivity to more businesses and contribute to the country’s digital transformation efforts, enabling greater access to online services and improving economic growth.”
The project has been in trial phase since February and is now being rolled out at scale. DFA will deploy 800 additional Dry Underground Distribution Cabinets (DUDC) units as part of the upgrade project. These units have been developed and manufactured in South Africa to DFA’s specifications. Maziv said the additional units would dramatically shorten the distance data travels from the customer and over the network using dedicated cables, ensuring the shortest possible installation times.
The infrastructure upgrade will be carried out in three phases over roughly 18 months. The project is designed to accommodate future growth and demand on the network, with the ability to scale up fibre deployment to meet demand as it increases.
“Since DFA first launched its FTTB connectivity services in 2015, our business customer base has grown and evolved considerably,” said DFA chief technology officer Andreas Uys. “DFA is investing heavily in enhancing and upgrading existing infrastructure environment to ensure we are able to deliver high volumes of FTTB connectivity and provide customers with a consistently high standard of service delivery. It remains a major priority of ours to maintain the industry-leading quality DFA is known for, which the latest upgrades to our back haul fibre infrastructure will ensure well into the future.”
