100Mbps Telkom fibre to the home

Telkom’s current 100Mbps fibre to the home (FTTH) pilot is producing “enormous speeds”, and a financially viable business case is possible. This is according to Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko.

In March 2012, information emerged that Telkom was set to roll out fibre to the home (FTTH) services in selected areas of Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Cape Town as part of a proof of concept for FTTH.

This pilot formed part of Telkom’s ongoing multi-service access nodes (MSANs) network upgrade.

MSANs can be used to offer higher speed ADSL (ADSL 2+), very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL), and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services.

Since the commercial launch of the new VDSL products in March 2013, Telkom has expanded the 53 pilot sites and, as of 14 June 2013, has cut-over 240 MSANs. In “new generation broadband port terms” Telkom has now deployed 124,640 active ports on its next generation network.

To fully test the newly deployed MSAN technology, Telkom also embarked on the Fibre to the Home and Fibre to the Business Technical Proof of Concept Project.

Five sites were identified and, at March 2013, Telkom delivered the first 100Mbps service to a business customer and residential customer.

Maseko said in an interview with MyBroadband that the real world speeds on their new 100Mbps FTTH were “enormous”.

He added that they think a financially viable business model for FTTH is possible, but only if data consumption increases.

More on Telkom FTTH

Telkom’s fibre-to-the-home plans

1Gbps Telkom VDSL and FTTH infrastructure roll-outs begin

Telkom fibre to the home plans