China’s ZTE wins giant FibreCo contract

Added by Editor on 22 September 2011.
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FibreCo, the joint venture between Cell C, Convergence Partners and Internet Solutions, has awarded the contract for the construction of its national open-access fibre optic network to China’s ZTE.

The company plans to build a 12 000km national fibre-optic network, linking the country’s towns and cities, at a cost of R5bn. The network will compete with fibre networks operated by incumbent fixed-line operator Telkom and state-owned Broadband Infraco.

FibreCo says the first phase of the investment will result in 2 300 direct and indirect job opportunities. FibreCo will also facilitate the training of at least 100 fibre-optic technicians, to be certified under the internationally recognised Fibre Optic Association.

Phase one of the network involves linking Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban and the submarine cable systems on the eastern and western coastlines of the country.

Work on the initial leg of phase one, a 1 900km link between Johannesburg and Cape Town via the Free State and Eastern Cape, is already underway. The cost of this leg is estimated at about R1bn.

FibreCo has also signed capacity purchase agreements with its first three clients for the Johannesburg-Cape Town route. They are BT (formerly British Telecom) and FibreCo shareholders Cell C and Internet Solutions.

“On the strength of these contracts, coupled with the financial backing of our shareholders, we have secured the necessary funding,” says FibreCo CEO Arif Hussain.

The company also says it plans to offer “heavily subsidised” fibre capacity to academic and research institutions.  — Staff reporter, TechCentral

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  • Kotters29

    All this fibre but none to my doorstep! 

  • http://bit.ly/qWEXNt Prom

    Blame the greedy telcos.

  • Gibbgodd

    ….or the cost of FTTH. Think before you ink :P

  • Davebee

    Why more fibre?????? Just 200 metres from my front gate there are 5 ,yes, 5 massive fibre cables doing, well, nothing.
    We are all still reliant on Telkom’s copper or the Telkom-tax local loop so just when do these so soooper doooper fibre jobbies come into play?
    Any ideas guys and gals?

  • Mlewies

    Because although every second oke and his dog runs metro fibre links now, there are still only a 3 or 4 lining jo’burg and capetown. If you knew the pricing that Telkom charges you’ll understand the business case 

  • http://bit.ly/qWEXNt Prom

    I’m sick of everybody always bringing up the supposed cost of fibre. Everything has cost including the copper that you are still paying for twice after it has been paid for decades ago.

    Other countries are going the fibre route but no corporate in this country wants to take the initiative including Neotel that’s waiting for LLU to provide outdated copper services, never even mind the person that doesn’t have a landline and will STILL be reliant on Telkom.

    Make me the CEO of one of them who may legally build a network and you will have fibre to drown in because I know it will pay for itself.

  • http://twitter.com/thewomble_za Greg Mahlknecht

    Yup, it’s more short-sighted than greed. Every day they delay, fibre gets relatively more expensive – With the bulk of the cost in trench digging, permit getting and other costs that are only going to go up, and the price you can eventually sell the fibre connectivity for only going down with all other telecomms costs, it baffles me that nobody is even trying to go for it. Not even in gated communities where the trenching and permit costs are zero.

    Why not approach some gated communities if you’re serious about getting into the space?   

    The telecomms industry in ZA is too used to picking the low hanging fruit and only moving in a new direction when there’s absolutely no other option. Sad, really, because when it comes to laying infrastructure and large projects like that, South Africa is actually damn good at it, and it would roll out pretty fast if they got serious about it.

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