FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) is a big talking point in South Africa at the moment, offering lightning-fast speeds at the fraction of the cost one would expect from similar ADSL lines.
Unfortunately, even some of South Africa’s largest suburbs don’t have access to Fibre yet, with a promised roll-out date of “soon”.
We asked Laurie Fialkov of CyberSmart and Abraham van der Merwe of Frogfoot (Division of VOX responsible for Fibre development) just how exactly ISPs choose which suburbs get FTTH services:
Frogfoot
Abraham van der Merwe – Frogfoot
Our ability to invest in infrastructure is ultimately governed by our ability to deploy infrastructure profitably and effectively manage our risks.
As a result, we have to take into account:
- The demographics of the suburbs (which influence the affordability/uptake of higher end packages
- The demand for fibre in the community and lack of alternatives (which influence our penetration in a suburb)
- The size of the suburb (FTTH requires scale otherwise the economics break down) and we generally only consider estates/suburbs with at least 1000 residents or more
- Geographical density (which influence the cost of the deployment)
CyberSmart
Lauri Fialkov – Cybersmart
At the moment it is really anyone who asks.
We rate opportunities based on whether we have the backing of a home owners association or not the interest we have shown in the area any competing technologies we have in the area and how close it is to our existing builds.
Do you have FTTH in your suburb? Let us know in the comments below and in our forums.
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I don’t think it has as much to do with rich or poor but with “competitiveness” or rather lack thereof.
This can be deduced from statements like “demand for fibre in the community and lack of alternatives (which influence our penetration in a suburb)”, especially the latter part of this statement. Judging from the pricing I’ve seen on FTTH products (not to mention lower risk of cable theft &/or lightning damage), this level of risk aversion from ISP’s seems rather pitiful – especially seeing as most of these services come with contractual strings attached.
Not a single person I know who pay monthly subscriptions for ADSL services (myself included), won’t jump at the first hint of a FTTH service in their residential areas. Perhaps I’ve got it wrong, but from where I’m standing it would seem that this market sector is so well protected from competition that their comfort zones must be a significant reason for the poor growth in this technology field.
Add to this a national government who is highly averse to public access to information and we have a good recipe for the snail-paced growth we currently observe.