High-speed fibre optic broadband access is the most promising suburban development since electricity.
“Fibre’s the best thing since lightbulbs began lighting up homes,” says Rad Jankovic, CEO of independent telecommunications provider, Otel.
Companies like Otel are rolling-out FTTH (Fibre To The Home) in communities across South Africa so that private households can benefit from unlimited high-speed Internet services that were previously the preserve of large corporate users.
The super-fast Internet access that fibre enables is increasingly-viewed as a basic amenity by households because of the many layers of additional services it enables.
Here are Otel’s top four reasons for communities to consider fibre:
* Fibre keeps communities safe by enabling the rollout of CCTV – Always-on streaming Internet means Residents Associations and security firms can work together on intelligent camera rollouts that stop criminals in realtime.
* Fibre keeps residents employed by enabling them to work from home – Working from home as effectively as if you were in the office is a real possibility with corporate-quality Internet access that’s always up and running no matter the file size.
* Fibre keeps household expenses down as all-you-can-eat indoors entertainment becomes an option. Satellite TV, for example, becomes expensive obsolete technology as uncapped high-speed Internet means low-cost streaming video becomes accessible.
* Fibre keeps families connected, no matter where they may be in the world – One or many streaming IP cameras around the house can keep a family member on a business trip or an overprotective first time dad up-to-date with whats happening at home.
“Internet access delivered via fibre optic cable is forever changing the working and leisure lives of communities for the better,” says Jankovic.
He adds that fibre has already impacted positively on South Africa’s business parks.
For example, most business parks are still reliant on ADSL provided over copper wire. This has speed and availability constraints compared to high-speed, always-available fibre optic underground cable delivered via FTTB (Fibre To The Business) rollouts by independent operators. Fibre also offers uncapped & uncontended Internet via LTE and connectivity solutions that are not vulnerable to cable theft, nor weather-based service interruptions.
However, most individual businesses within office parks are most attracted by the significant savings fibre enables on local, international and mobile voice calls.
From a modest operation in 2008, OTEL is today a licensed FTTH and business-to-business provider of VoIP & broadband Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions.