Fiber Optic Social Network

This is the news that appeared in the Balancing Act  One new major fibre project came into the light of day last week and further details emerged about another. The first is an ambitious initiative to create a Southern African fibre network on the back of the South African Power Pool transmission network. The second is WAFS, a Telkom South…

The small gap in the fiber optic link between South Africa and Mozambique has now been closed. Fiber optic cables crossing Mozambique and South Africa border has been installed and commissioned. People are looking to see whether Telkom SA (South Africa) offers rates that are sufficiently cheap to be competitive with satellite, something it has not offered Lesotho and Namibia’s incumbent telecom operators.

The cost of a cable plays a significantly major role in tenders. Quality of course is a factor and also is the reputation of the supplier. Some fifteen to twenty years before, the fiber optic cable industry with a few players around was not so vibrant and unpredictable in terms of price. The demand was also low. Very few countries…