Fiber optic technology has taken off in South Africa, but both the government and private sectors are laying cables. Industry leaders — Telecoms, Dark Fibre Africa, Vodacom, Internet Solutions, Teraco and Jasco ICT Solutions — have urged the government to stop laying fiber where the infrastructure already exists.
In South Africa, the economic potential from easily accessible broadband connectivity is nearly endless, but the duplication of fiber cables is a waste of time and resources. Industry leaders recently urged the South African government to work in collaboration with the private sector to stimulate delivery and to drive demand.
“Private sector and Government need to work much closer together to create a framework which deploys complementary, rather than isolated and often overlapping and competing fiber deployments in the same areas while omitting other un-serviced areas,” said Eckart Zollner, Jasco ICT solutions general manager for business development.
Other challenges related to the technology boom in South Africa include having access to buildings and keeping up with the growing demand for fiber. Industry leaders again stressed that having shared infrastructure and avoiding costly duplication could serve as the solution for these problems.
Middle mile fiber maps, long haul fiber and fiber lit buildings can help countries, such as South Africa, and other local communities to make informed decisions for planning fiber optic networks and avoiding unnecessary duplication. Finding already laid fiber can save cities a lot of money in initial installation costs. Cities can use fiber network maps, fiber lit buildings, and other fiber data sets to analyze the fiber infrastructure in their area so that they can decide how best to utilize it in order to enhance high-speed Internet access and to meet the growing connectivity demands.
If you are interested in obtaining telecommunications GIS data to analyze telecom networks and make business decisions, contact GeoTel Communications at (800) 277-2172.
