The Parkview Residents’ Association (PRA) has contracted Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) to build an open-access fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in the Johannesburg suburbs of Parkview and Greenside East, TechCentral reports. Under the project, DFA will provide a ‘future proofed’ fibre-optic network, which will be capable of delivering download speeds of up to 1Gbps to residents and businesses in the area. DFA will only operate and maintain the infrastructure while making it available to internet service providers (ISPs) on an equal basis. Planning for the construction of the network will commence immediately, with the aim of completing the fibre installations within four months.
FTTH subscription plans will offer downlink speeds ranging from 10Mbps to 100Mbps, with entry level prices expected to be less than ZAR600 (USD53.8), including data. ‘DFA has guaranteed that they will not increase their charges to service providers for five years… This benefit combined with open access should ensure that residents and businesses continue to benefit from price and service competition, not just now but in the future’, the PRA said.