South African fibre broadband provider Vumatel has announced that the first homes in the up-market Johannesburg suburb of Parkhurst have been connected to its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network, which offers maximum download speeds of 1Gbps, BusinessTech reports. The operator offers FTTH on an open access model, under which customers will be able to choose from multi-play service providers including MWEB, Web Africa, Smart Village, Cool Ideas, Cybersmart and Vox Telecom, its first service-provider partner in Parkhurst. Vumatel CEO Niel Schoeman said: ‘We are on schedule in Parkhurst and will connect all the homes by February of next year.’
As previously noted by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, Vumatel is aiming to deploy fibre-optic broadband to roughly 200,000 homes in around 100 suburbs/locations across South Africa over the next three to four years, at an estimated cost of ZAR2 billion-ZAR3 billion (USD186 million-USD279 million). In September 2014 Vumatel identified the 42 suburbs it aims to connect next, as it extends the fibre-optic network across Johannesburg and Cape Town. The operator named the following locations in Johannesburg for the rollout of FTTH: Atholl, Beverley, Blairgowrie, Douglasdale, Emmarentia, Forest Town, Fourways, Gallo Manor, Greenside, Houghton Estate, Hurlingham & Hurlingham Manor, Hyde Park, Illovo, Inanda & Chislehurston, Killarney & Riviera, Linden, Lonehill, Melrose & Birdhaven, Melville, Parkhurst, Parkmore, Parktown, Parktown North, Parkwood, Pine Slopes, River Club, Sandhurst, Saxonwold, Upper Houghton, Victory Park and Westcliff. Meanwhile, the suburbs in Cape Town that have been slated for FTTH deployments include: Bishopscourt, Camps Bay & Bakoven, Constantia, Fresnaye, Gardens, Mouille Point, Newlands, Oranjezicht, Sea Point, Tamboerskloof and Vredehoek.