TC|Daily | Vumatel's audacious plan to take fibre to everyone

The leadership teams at Vumatel and Vuma parent Maziv don't dream small.<br /> The company, South Africa's largest provider of fibre-to-the-home broadband infrastructure, has an audacious plan to deploy fibre not only to townships - a project that is already well under way - but also to informal settlements.<br /> It doesn't intend doing this via wireless for the "last mile". It wants to deploy a fixed-fibre connection into every house and into every dwelling, even if the household's total income is less than R5 000/month.<br /> It wants to drive down the price of uncapped broadband to less than R100/month, and in so doing make uncapped Internet access available to almost everybody in South Africa who wants it.<br /> Pie in the sky? No, says Dietlof Mare, CEO of Vumatel and Maziv, in this wide-ranging interview with TechCentral's TC|Daily. The team is working hard to perfect the model and is confident it will be able to do it - and profitably, too.<br /> In this episode, Mare talks about the success of the Vuma Reach prepaid fibre roll-out in Mitchells Plain in Cape Town, and how Vuma is replicating that model across the country, including in sprawling townships like Soweto, Vosloorus and Soshanguve in Gauteng.<br /> He also unpacks Vuma Key, Vumatel's plan - now in pilot phase - to bring uncapped fibre Internet to places like Alexandra in Johannesburg and Khayelitsha in Cape Town.<br /> Also in the interview, Mare talks about:<br /> * The creation of Maziv, the new holding company of Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa, and why it was formed;<br /> * The latest on the Vodacom acquisition of a significant minority stake in Maziv and what the operator brings to the table;<br /> * Consolidation in the fibre network operator market in South Africa, and why the big mobile operators are going to play a leading role in this; and<br /> * The importance of open access.<br /> Don't miss this fascinating interview. <a href="https://www.techcentral.co.za/">TechCentral</a>