Denis Opudo
There is an urgent need in the Kroonstad province in South Africa to have high-speed broadband connectivity. This is based on the fact that only 5.4% of the houses in the province can access the internet. Moreover, only 9.9% of people can access the internet at their workplace. Thanks to the FibreCo Kroonstad connectivity project. The project has ensured that there is fibre connectivity in Kroonstad town. Kroonstad is the third largest city in the Free State. It is also the first city along the FibreCo national fibre network between Cape Town and Johannesburg to have a fibre connection in the town.
The project is run courtesy of FibreCo Telecommunication, and it will be of much help to the internet connectivity in Kroonstad city. The completion of the project has ensured that reliable high-speed broadband connectivity is accessible to the community. The project in Kroonstad is the first in the FibreCo’s town connectivity strategy. Furthermore, FibreCo’s town connectivity is planning to connect more towns across its 4,000 kilometers national fibre network. The cost of infrastructure is still a major stumbling block to the universal broadband. According to FibreCo CEO Simon Harvey, the open access model in Kroonstad by FibreCo gives a chance to any number of operators and service providers to purchase connectivity without the necessity of large capital outlay. This makes it more pocket-friendly compared to if they were to build the infrastructure on their own.
FibreCo uses its open access wholesale model to enable mobile operators, WISPs, and ISPs to provide broadband services of high speed to their clients. Access Global becomes the first ever ISP to collaborate with FibreCo in the city. Their first group of clients is already enjoying the benefits that come with access to reliable high-speed broadband services. The executive director of Access Global Communication, Hennie Roets said that it was a significant step to be the first ISP to partner with FibreCo in the city. He added that the two with work on offering services and products to the satisfaction of their clients. According to him, they are committed to ensuring that all their customers are handled with integrity.
FibreCo is backing the South African government’s National Development Plan. It is also in support of the e-services strategy apart from recognizing the urge to offer high-speed broadband services to underserviced regions in accordance with country’s governments connect policy. The company is also contributing to the socio-economic development areas like e-health and e-learning. That is ensured by working with municipal and provincial partners to link them to the FibreCo network. According to the business development executive at FibreCo Sammy Mafu, the company has provided high-speed broadband connectivity services to Kroonstad clinics. The clinics are the first ones ever to get direct fibre through a fixed fibre termination process. He added that the clinics collectively offer services to more than 30,000 people every month. This is key to the efforts of the national government to kick-start the National Health Insurance. Moreover, the company has installed a fixed fibre at the Moqhaka Municipality. This makes the Municipality the first one in Free State to have its 1Gbps ready fixed connectivity node.
