In collaboration with Nokia – and in line with its goal of connecting 2-million homes by 2028 – fibertime is expanding its fibre broadband access footprint to include an additional 400 000 homes located across South Africa’s underserved communities.
As part of the agreement, fibertime will deploy Nokia’s Lightspan access nodes and Wi-Fi 6 enabled fibre access points, using Nokia’s ONT Easy Start to automate and simplify the fibre modem activation process and streamline deployments. Fibertime will also use Nokia’s 7750 Wireless Access Gateway to create a single SSID on their network that allows customers to walk around the township and stay connected.
“With Nokia’s support, we’re able to significantly ramp up the roll-out of our low-cost, high-speed, fibre Internet service to underserved township communities across South Africa,” says Danvig de Bruyn, CEO of fibertime. “We’re now connecting 1 200 households a day to flexible, high-speed access – up to 950Mbps in some cases – without the need for contracts or debit orders. Once a township is connected, customers simply buy vouchers at a local spaza, retail outlet or via their banking app, enter the voucher number in their fibertime app, and immediately have access to unlimited and unthrottled fibre-to-the-home Internet at a cost of R5 per day.”
To help further drive automation and scale across its network, fibertime will also deploy Nokia’s Altiplano and Network Services Platform solutions along with its Altiplano Fiber Health Analyzer which can detect network anomalies and identify potential issues before they escalate.
“Nokia’s automation and AI-powered tools not only help us to improve operational efficiencies, but also enhance the reliability of our FTTH network,” says De Bruyn. “We can now detect disruptions earlier and resolve incidents more quickly to ultimately improve the subscriber experience.”
Sandy Motley, president of Fixed Networks at Nokia, adds: “Reliable broadband is critical for thriving communities – powering education, healthcare, and local economies. Yet too many people remain unconnected because of the unique challenges tied to where they live. With our fibre and IP solutions we’re changing that bringing broadband services to thousands of customers at once and in regions once considered too difficult to serve.”