Internet connectivity in Kroonstad will benefit from a substantial enhancement as FibreCo Telecommunications completes its roll out of fibre in the town, making reliable high-speed broadband connectivity more accessible to the community.
Given that only 5.4% of households in the province have access to the internet at home, while only 9.9% have access at work, it’s clear that there is an urgent need to hasten access to high-speed broadband connectivity. The third largest city in the Free State, Kroonstad is the first city along the FibreCo national fibre route between Johannesburg and Cape Town to have fibre rolled out in the town.
The FibreCo Kroonstad connectivity project, is the first in FibreCo’s town connectivity strategy which plans to connect many more towns along its 4000km national fibre route. The biggest challenge to universal broadband is infrastructure cost.
“FibreCo’s open access model in Kroonstad allows any number of service providers and operators to buy connectivity without the large capital outlay, making it significantly more affordable than if they were to build the infrastructure themselves,” explains Simon Harvey, CEO FibreCo.
True to its open access wholesale model, FibreCo works to enable ISPs, WISPs and Mobile Operators to provide high-speed broadband services to their customers. Access Global is the first ISP to partner with FibreCo in Kroonstad and their first customers are already benefiting from access to reliable high-speed fibre broadband services.
“It is a great honour to be the first ISP associated with FibreCo in Kroonstad. We are driven to maintain client satisfaction with all our products and services. We strive to ensure that all our clients are treated with integrity while being efficiently and effectively serviced.” says Hennie Roets, Executive Director, Access Global Communication.
In support of our Government’s National Development Plan; e-Services Strategy and recognising the need to provide high-speed broadband services to underserviced areas in line with government’s SA Connect Policy, FibreCo contributes to socio economic developmental areas such as e-learning and e-health through working with provincial and municipal partners to connect them to the FibreCo network.
“FibreCo has already provided high-speed broadband connectivity services to clinics in Kroonstad, one of which is the first clinic to ever receive direct fibre through a fixed fibre termination” says Sammy Mafu, Business Development Executive, FibreCo. “Together these clinics service over 30 000 people monthly which is central to national government efforts to get the National Health Insurance off the ground.”
FibreCo has also installed a fixed fibre node at the Moqhaka Municipality, making it the first Free State municipality with its own dedicated 1Gbps ready fixed connectivity node.