Vumatel plans to offer uncapped 100 Mbps fibre to the home (FTTH) in townships throughout South Africa at ZAR 89 per month by October or November, reports Techcentral. Vumatel will begin a pilot project in Alexendra, the low-income, high-density township north of Johannesburg, offering uncapped fibre to every home, including informal dwellings, for a price equivalent to a few soft drinks.
By the end of the first quarter of 2018, it will have deployed fibre to 60,000 dwellings in the township, located east of the Sandton CBD. About 400,000 people live in Alexandra, the company estimates. CEO Niel Schoeman told TechCentral that the company has done the business modeling, and believes it will be a commercial success.
If it is successful, Vumatel would bring fibre to other townships in Gauteng and eventually those in Cape Town and Durban. Diepsloot is likely to follow Alexandra next year, with Soweto and Tembisa also high on the priority list. Unlike in the suburbs, however, the fibre will be aerial (strung along poles) rather than trenched, and a contention ratio of 20:1 will apply.
This means that if 20 consumers maximise use of their lines at the same time, consumers can expect a minimum speed of 5 Mbps. In practice, however, it will be much higher than that, he said.
Vumatelfirst broke ground in the FTTH broadband market three years ago in the leafy Johannesburg suburb of Parkhurst and has rapidly expanded to cover most of the city's northern suburbs, as well as parts of Cape Town and Durban.
