IHS Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | Broadband Infraco is providing open-access wholesale national transmission services to all licensed operators in South Africa. |
Implications | Broadband Infraco will also offer international wholesale services from mid-2011, as it as an investor in the WACS submarine cable which is due to enter service next year. |
Outlook | Broadband Infraco currently has a national long-distance fibre network of some 12,100 kilometres, which it is now expanding to reach smaller cities, towns and rural areas. |
"The launch of Broadband Infraco (Broadband Infrastructure Company) as national, open access, wholesale service provider in the South African telecommunications space, heralds an era of access to national and international broadband products and services for all licensed operators", said Dave Smith, the CEO of Broadband Infraco in a company press release.
For a number of years Broadband Infraco has leased transmission network to second national operator Neotel as its only customer, but it has now been licensed to provide wholesale services independently and has been preparing to launch for some time (see South Africa: 1 April 2010: Broadband Infraco Set to Launch Services During Q3 in South Africa).
Neotel is also participating in the 5,000-km co-built national fibre backbone with MTN and Vodacom which is currently under construction (see South Africa: 24 April 2009: Construction of Co-Built South African Fibre Transmission Network Begins). Broadband Infraco says that it is continuing to work with Neotel to extend their longstanding commercial relationship.
Whilst Broadband Infraco operates a national long-distance fibre network, it does not have an access network to serve consumers directly and does not therefore offer retail services. Broadband Infraco's mandate and vision is to provide affordable access to long distance broadband telecommunications connectivity services in South Africa, according to a company press release. Its target wholesale customer base includes fixed & mobile network operators and service providers, metro network operators, internet and value added service providers, multinational operators and licensed operators in previously underserviced areas. Broadband Infraco provides connectivity services on an open access basis to any licensed service provider at key points of presence (POPs) in its network.
Outlook and Implications
Unveiling the launch of services on 18 November, Broadband Infraco also announced that it had secured several major contracts, including a ten-year 10-Gbps contract with one customer for connectivity between Johannesburg and Mtunzini for access to submarine cables landing at Mtunzini. In partnership with Neotel it was also awarded a project to install a 10-Gbps network for the South African Large Telescope (SALT) and Square Kilometre Array (SKA) sites in the Northern Cape.
This launch of service as an independent provider follows a year after Broadband Infraco was granted an individual electronic communication network service (I-ECNS) licence by the regulator ICASA on 19 October 2009 (see South Africa: 29 October 2009: South African Broadband Infraco Granted I-ECNS Licence and South Africa: 27 April 2010: South Africa's ICASA Delays Issuing Second Licence to Broadband Infraco).
The company says that its national fibre transmission network is now some12,100 km in length, is fully operational between the major metropolitan centres, and is being extended to smaller cities, towns, rural areas and a growing regional network to South Africa's borders with neighbouring states.
Broadband Infraco is also an anchor party in the West Africa Cable System (WACS), which will run from South Africa to the United Kingdom and is due to enter service in 2011 (see Sub-Saharan Africa: 9 April 2009: WACS Consortium Awards Submarine Cable Contract to Alcatel-Lucent). The operator therefore expects to offer international wholesale services during the second half of 2011.