Fibre-optic telecommunications specialist Dark Fibre Africa has announced it is to acquire Conduct, a last-mile fibre developer that provides high-speed access to business customers in South Africa’s urban centre.

DFA has traditionally focused on metropolitan and national long-distance fibre infrastructure, while Conduct is focused specifically on providing access to business end users.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of March, pending the necessary approvals. The value of the deal is not being disclosed.

DFA intends making the capital investments required to build last-mile fibre infrastructure where it currently has a metro network presence.

DFA chief strategy officer Reshaad Sha says the deal gives his company an “overnight presence” as a last-mile fibre player. “It puts into motion our strategy to connect as many customers to our fibre network as possible in a cost-effective way,” he says in a statement.

Sha says there is a largely unmet need for cost-effective fibre connectivity to enterprise customers. The cost of building out the last mile from an existing network into the building has been a barrier to entry to fibre connectivity for many businesses.

“Our customers, being Internet service providers and telecoms operators, therefore require an underlying solution that accelerates business connectivity more economically,” he says. “DFA has focused its efforts on building a product set to lower or remove, this barrier to entry.”