MTN has lit the fibre optic network from Germiston to Durban.
The National Long Distance (NLD) consortium – consisting of MTN, Vodacom, Neotel and SANRAL (South African National Road Agency Limited) – completed the trenching of almost 700km of fibre optic cable in December, and MTN has now lit up the route from Germiston to Durban.
“This project marks a significant achievement and milestone in our self-provisioning strategy. The transmission system used on the route is completely managed by MTN and is testament to our commitment to connecting South Africa to the world with high-speed data,” says Kanagaratnam (Lambo) Lambotharan, chief technology officer at MTN SA.
The system currently supports 400Gbps of traffic and is scalable to meet future requirements.
“The NLD project will positively impact business development and entrepreneurship in the country in terms of access speeds as well as delivering the ability to circumvent some of the challenges that exist around national and last-mile connectivity,” says Lambotharan.