FibreCo Telecommunications (“FibreCo”), a joint venture between Cell C, Convergence Partners and Internet Solutions, announced the awarding of a contract for construction of its nation-wide open-access fibre optic network. FibreCo’s objective is to facilitate affordable and reliable high-speed Internet access for South African citizens and businesses.
Seacom, a Convergence Partners investee company, has invested R100 million in additional South African infrastructure to meet the continuous high growth in demand for broadband services and applications. The investment includes the purchase of physical optical fibre links from Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) as well as installing the equipment required for Seacom to manage the network linking KwaZulu Natal’s coast where the Seacom marine cable lands to two redundant Points of Presence (PoPs) in Gauteng.
Seventeen years ago Wired published Neal Stephenson’s magisterial epic “Mother Earth Mother Board”, about the web of undersea fibre-optic cables being built to connect all of humanity. Well – almost all. Africa, again, was left behind. Until 2009, all of East Africa could only connect to the Internet over slow and hugely expensive satellite links.
Finally, two years ago, SEACOM, a Convergence Partners investee company, laid a cable along the East African coast to Mumbai; then tributaries were run thousands of kilometers inland, as far as Uganda and even Rwanda; and later this year, a direct connection to Europe will be lit up. A recent article in TechCruch explores some of the inner workings and history of the SEACOM undersea cable.
Less than two years after completing the undersea portion of the first system to connect Southern and Eastern Africa to the rest of the world via India and Europe, Convergence Partners’ investee company SEACOM continues to drive the growth of the African Internet by rolling-out an Internet Protocol, IP, Platform into its international core network.
The IP Platform project involves the design, deployment and operation of nine land-based Internet access points that will store popular web content closer to where the Internet is accessed, thereby enabling a richer and faster Internet browsing experience for end users. Six of these IP network nodes are already live including Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Maputo, Marseille, Mombasa and Mtunzini.
Dimension Data subsidiary Plessey has won a R20m contract to install and maintain 11 regeneration sites on Dark Fibre Africa’s fibre cable linking Empangeni on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast and Pretoria in Gauteng.
Plessey chief operating officer Howard Earley says the sites will house equipment that will pick up any data on the fibre and rebroadcast it using a booster to make sure that data degradation doesn’t occur.
The Intelsat New Dawn satellite is scheduled to be launched on 29 March 2011 from Arianespace’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. Intelsat New Dawn is the first ever African private sector communications satellite.
A joint-venture between a consortium led by Convergence Partners and Intelsat S.A., the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, the New Dawn satellite and its 28 C-band and 24 Ku-band 36 MHz transponder units are designed specifically to supply critical communications infrastructure for African customers. Operating from a geostationary orbital slot at 32.8 degrees East, Intelsat New Dawn will be ideally positioned to serve Africa through a payload optimized to deliver wireless backhaul, broadband and media content – the fastest growing satellite-based applications in Africa.
AfricaCom, the Continent’s premier communications event, took place in Cape Town on 10 and 11 November. Chairman Andile Ngcaba was a featured speaker on day 1, highlighting the opportunities & challenges facing ICT investors in Africa, and the Convergence Partners Group was proud to unveil its new stand (see pictures attached) – the first time we have exhibited at the event. The rationale behind this was to showcase the many young and exciting companies in the Group and give them access to the burgeoning African communications market, as represented by over 5000 attendees over the two days.
The Convergence Partners stand was a hive of activity for the duration of the event (especially when our gorgeous ladies served up some great cocktails at the end of day 1). Companies in the Convergence Partners stand that were formally exhibiting at AfricaCom included Seacom, Convergence Wireless Networks (comprising WiA and Intra), Intelsat New Dawn Satellite Project, Plessey, Comsol, Integrat, Skillpod Media, Bloodhound, Inala, Convergence Border Management Solutions, as well as the Convergence Partners Foundation.
AfircaCom also coincided with the media launch of Convergence Partners’ latest project, FibreCo (see below blog).
FibreCo Telecommunications (“FibreCo”), a partnership between Cell C, Internet Solutions and Convergence Partners, announced today that it will be developing an open-access long-haul terrestrial fibre optic broadband network as an answer to the need for national transmission infrastructure to meet the nation’s aspirations for world-class broadband connectivity.
FibreCo brings the ability to fund, deploy and manage a cost-effective high speed long-haul fibre network which will support the explosive growth in bandwidth requirements of the country anticipated over the coming years.
New Dawn, the first of its kind joint venture between Convergence Partners and Intelsat, is on track to launch its $250m geostationary communications satellite, which is targeted at the African market, by the end of the year, Flavien Bachabi, vice-president for Intelsat Africa said yesterday, 13 April 2010.
This is an update to the Convergence Partners report entitled “African Telecommunications Market: Last Frontier For Growth” (Vol.1 No.1 of 2007) (“Report 1″).
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