Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) is in talks to buy fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband infrastructure provider Vumatel, MyBroadband writes. According to well-placed sources, Vumatel is believed to be valued at ‘multiple billions of rand’. It is currently unclear how DFA would fund the deal, though it is understood that the company did secure ZAR1.2 billion (USD88 million) of new funding in May this year, following an extension and increase of its revolving credit facility to ZAR1.1 billion in December 2016.
TeleGeography notes that open-access fibre provider Vumatel lit its 1Gbps open access fibre infrastructure in Parkhurst in October 2014. The operator has since announced that it plans to pass around 200,000 homes with its open-access network in around 100 locations across South Africa over the next three to four years. In October 2016, meanwhile, Vumatel acquired rival Fibrehoods – which started deploying fibre-optic networks to 24 suburbs in the Gauteng region in March 2015 – for an undisclosed sum.