20 July 2020, Johannesburg – South Africa’s leading communications infrastructure provider, Openserve continued its focus on providing affordable broadband across the country by recently launching another data led wholesale broadband proposition called Openserve Pure Connect. The genesis of this proposition lies in utilising the value of both copper and fibre infrastructure to connect more households to the internet.
Seeing the value that the vast copper and fibre network plays in the greater connectivity ecosystem, Openserve CEO, Althon Beukes, says: “the wholesaling of the hybrid copper and fibre broadband access product compliments Openserve’s overall fixed broadband strategy which is focused on providing fast and consistent connectivity to as many people as possible. We are continuously looking at innovative ways to provide affordable broadband access to our customers”.
The demand for affordable broadband connectivity has significantly grown as consumers adapt to the pro-longed effects of COVID 19. The new normal has laid more emphasis on the power and importance of connectivity as more consumers utilise the internet to work from home, consume online services which include online schooling, video conferencing, streaming movies, online gaming and over the top voice services to connect with the outside world and with each other.
It has been 2 months since the successful launch of Openserve PureConnect broadband access product aimed at leveraging our FTTC infrastructure to enable affordable quality broadband connectivity. In the short space of time, we have seen good numbers of orders coming through from our various ISP partners and the numbers are continuing to increase. More encouraging is the fact that most of the orders received are for speeds of 10mbps and above. This is proof that, with the right mix of technology, affordable quality and reliable broadband is possible in South Africa.
With the need to have stable connectivity across lager number of homes, Openserve believes that its strategy of driving broadband connectivity utilising both fibre and copper as a combined solution will successfully fulfil the consumption needs of the end customers. This hybrid use of both fibre and copper has proven very successful in many parts of the world including USA, New Zeeland and UK to name a few. This hybrid solution called FTTC (Fibre to the Curb/Cabinet) utilises fibre as a connectivity medium to the nearest point (curb/cabinet on the street) and then harness the already existing copper infrastructure which is connected within a house to create a faster, reliable and consistent broadband connection. It can scale up to speeds of 40mbps there by competing with FTTH speeds and at more affordable prices at a wholesale level.
It is important to recognise that as the economy battles through these challenging times, connectivity to the internet becomes an important need for all South Africans. To support this, Openserve continues to focus on future roll out of Fibre to the Home (FTTH) solution whilst improving and maintaining copper network with FTTC. Hence Openserve will continue to modernise its fixed network infrastructure.
In a drive to give the end customers the best experience, Openserve will be discontinuing its copper based broadband connectivity in areas where it has replaced it with Openserve FTTH solution and would encourages users to proactively move to its Fibre to the Home connectivity proposition through Openserve’s ISP partners. Openserve will also be taking strict measures not sell services in areas where the copper infrastructure is old, of poor quality and has been prone to theft, vandalism and breakages.
We are encouraging all customers to move on to our modernised FTTH network and experience the joys of being able to connect and consume all required services on it said Althon Beukes CEO, Openserve. He also added that, in areas where Openserve is yet to build out end to end fibre infrastructure and finds its current copper infrastructure to be stable and reliable, Openserve will continue to support, maintain and provide broadband services.
While future of connectivity is no doubt in fibre, copper is by no means dead. When used in combination with other technologies, copper can enable greater access and speeds of connectivity. A hybrid of sorts, FTTC allows Openserve to provide innovative solutions that can ensure connectivity for all South Africans at all times.” adds Beukes.
The experience of interacting on a stable, fast and consistent fixed network enabled by fibre is fast becoming the preferred choice of most of the people and Openserve believes that its FTTC and FTTH propositions of Openserve Pure Connect and Openserve Fibre Connect respectively allows South Africans to do just that. No other access medium has left its imprint in the history communication like copper has and when used in tandem with newer technologies like fibre, it continues to be relevant.
ENDS.
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ABOUT OPENSERVE:
Openserve is Telkom’s redesigned wholesale partner and is a division of the Telkom Group. It is South Africa’s largest telecommunications infrastructure provider with the biggest broadband network.
