Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) is currently deploying a fibre infrastructure to the value of R72-million within South Africa’s Eastern Cape region. More than 100 kilometres of fibre is being laid in the region that includes Mthata and East London.
DFA has evolved into the largest open access fibre infrastructure provider in Southern Africa with an expenditure plan in excess of R3.5-billion countrywide. This project will not only launch the region into the digital age, but it will also bring significant investment into the area.
The socio economic benefits of fibre optic networks are vast, affordable broadband contributes to increased economic activity.
Expansion of communications infrastructure brings about new business opportunities that are dependent on broadband like ISPs, Internet Cafes and banking services.
Open Access broadband also stimulates competition within the telecommunications market, ultimately reducing Internet costs. Furthermore, the competitive advantage and productivity gains of broadband are enormous. Municipalities are able to provide electronic services, education levels improve with access to information and communities have access to eHealth and eLearning.
Dark Fibre Africa CEO Gustav Smit says they merely provide the open access fibre infrastructure. This enables licensed mobile operators and ISPs like Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Internet Solutions and MWEB to give communities access to the network.
Smit has called on ISPs to play a leading role in mobilising communities. End users simply do not know what 20Mbps or 100Mbps to the home means. An opportunity needs to be created for users to test drive serious broadband.
“DFA is here to provide a long term sustainable solution to the local community”, he concludes. The Mthata project is planned to start in June 2012 and the project in East London will be completed by the end of July 2012.
Staff writer
patented in 2004 by a Togolese researcher, Dr. Victor Agbegnenou, the PWCS (Polyvalent Wireless Communication System) technology, the technology of the Thales Group, uses microwave and as “a fibre through the air”.
Lebon Ngounou, who heads the Cameroonian society IdreamGroup in charge of commercializing this technology in Africa, “the PWCS is the economical alternative market to reduce the digital divide by ensuring capacity and rates comparable to those of optical fibre for a lower cost up to 10 times”. The PWCS ould allow, according to its proponent, to offer African consumers of triple play (internet very broadband, telephony and television) for 15,000 CFA FRANCS per month.
Lebon Ngounou of Cameroonian society IdreamGroup.
Concretely, the PWCS is a “row of technology”, says Lebon Ngounou: “This means that the signal is transmitted between two antennas – a transmitter and a receiver – and that message passes between these two points that in the absence of obstruction, such as a building or a relief.” If obstacle, it adds a relay. The receiver is then connected to the user by wiring, optical or non. The Subscriber, equipped with a decoder can then benefit from an offer triple play. Each receiver can also become a relay transmitter, which allows the creation of a dense and this network to the last kilometre, often very expensive to connect fibre optique.».
To their promoter, radio technology requires little time to install, as the fibre which should support the achievement of trenches and therefore the cost of work in civil engineering. On the other hand, the antennas, which do not measure “18 inch”, are arranged on existing infrastructure and require that rarely the construction of towers. This low-cost infrastructure would thus bring very high flow in sparsely populated areas and ensure universal access to low-cost.
The process has already tested in a real situation in Auger Saint Vincent, 50 km from Paris, said Mr. Ngounou.(http://www.augersaintvincent.fr/article/articleview/64/1/27). It team already the University of Ouagadougou or UEMOA headquarters.
PWCS:
Voice
( Fixed and mobile 4G and LTE Advanced or Very mobile broadband).
Data
(super-fast broadband)
TV
IPTV, VOD, HDTV, personal Tv, network games, Broadcast and television programs in HD, Retransmit live broadcasts by PWCS, videoconferencing, CCTV with alarm, Geolocation, GPS.