Residents in Stellenbosch, Somerset West, Paarl and Wellington are, by now, used to workers along the sides of their roads digging narrow trenches and laying down brightly coloured blue plastic ‘tubing’.  In fact, this is the first roll-out of Vodacom Business’s fibre-optic network in the area.

Fibre-optic cabling is important to applications like the Internet, telephone systems and, in some countries, cable TV.

The current network consists of:

• 23 kilometres of cable in Stellenbosch  - from Kuilsriver to Stellenbosch and approximately half of the Stellenbosch to Somerset West road

• 48 kilometres of cable in Somerset West including the remaining half of the Stellenbosch/Somerset West Road,  and the N2 to Mitchells Plain)    

• 49 kilometres in Paarl and Wellington.

• 38km of Optic Spurs in Stellenbosch. Paarl and Somerset West

Ermano Quartero, Managing Executive Products and Marketing at Vodacom Business says the fibre-optic cabling brings customers easy, rapid transfer of large amounts of data and is ideal for services that require smooth data provisioning, such as video conferencing.

"We are constantly requested by consumers and companies for increased Internet bandwidth and faster connectivity. Having fibre in these areas makes it possible for our customers to have access to the vast range of services we offer, such as voice, video and networked storage and hosting," says Quartero.

 
Fiber optic cabling has advantages over standard copper coaxial cables, in that it can transmit larger quantities of data with far less loss, is able to maintain signals over long distances, carries little risk of corrosion, and is virtually free from interference.

"To provide customers with the services they demand we need a high-bandwidth, low-cost, reliable last-mile service. Vodacom Business is able to now meet these needs," says Quartero. “The fibre-optic cables now installed in the Paarl-Wellington-Stellenbosch area bring high-speed, business-quality connectivity to the many companies situated in this important hub and open a wide variety of enterprise-class solutions to them.”