{"id":476683,"date":"2023-01-18T13:13:43","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T11:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=476683"},"modified":"2023-01-18T13:16:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T11:16:40","slug":"frogfoots-fibre-plans-for-2023-including-a-possible-international-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/fibre\/476683-frogfoots-fibre-plans-for-2023-including-a-possible-international-expansion.html","title":{"rendered":"Frogfoot’s fibre plans for 2023 \u2014 including a possible international expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

South African fibre network operator (FNO) Frogfoot is considering a potential international expansion and will increase its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) rollouts in densely populated areas in 2023.<\/p>\n

Frogfoot passed 350,000 homes in the country with its FTTH fibre network by the end of 2022.<\/p>\n

Of these homes, 135,000 are using its network, making it the third-largest fibre operator in South Africa in terms of homes connected.<\/p>\n

The only two with more customers are Vumatel, South Africa’s first big proponent of mass-market FTTH, and Openserve, which established its network when Telkom had a monopoly on fixed-line infrastructure in South Africa.<\/p>\n

MyBroadband recently spoke to Frogfoot chief development officer Shane Chorley to learn more about the operator’s plans for 2023.<\/p>\n

Chorley said that Frogfoot was looking beyond South Africa for growth.<\/p>\n

“We are investigating a few other territories, but these are still very much in an incubation stage and nothing concrete yet,” he stated.<\/p>\n

Chorley explained that several European countries still had a relatively low density for fibre usage.<\/p>\n

“Even though they have good DSL connections, we believe there exists the opportunity to bring high-speed fibre to more homes,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Shane Chorley, Frogfoot chief business development officer<\/p><\/div>\n

Another major focus for the company will be on expanding its fibre network in high-density areas at a large scale.<\/p>\n

As part of this plan, Frogfoot will deploy more aerial fibre installations instead of trenching.<\/p>\n

“[Aerial fibre] is the standard deployment methodology in such areas,” he said. “It is not only more cost effective, but easier to install and maintain in high-density areas.”<\/p>\n

Chorley said this approach would reduce Frogfoot’s rollout cost per home, enabling more aggressively-priced fibre Internet packages.<\/p>\n

In the broader industry, Chorley expects different bundling and effective price drops in high-density areas in 2023, purely because of the improved build-to-cost ratio.<\/p>\n

“Then there are changes to the way in which these services are being billed, with prepaid fibre Internet to gain in popularity,” he stated.<\/p>\n

Chorley added that Frogfoot was still in a planning phase regarding its targeted rollout areas and would only share these once they went live.<\/p>\n

Combatting load-shedding is a costly exercise<\/h2>\n

MyBroadband also asked Chorley how Frogfoot was readying its network for the high levels of load-shedding anticipated in 2023.<\/p>\n

Several FNOs \u2014 including Frogfoot \u2014 previously said their backup systems were sufficient to continue supporting FTTH connectivity up to stage 6 load-shedding.<\/p>\n

Based on the trend in the Eskom generating fleet’s energy availability factor and high levels of breakdowns, experts are warning that the power cuts will likely reach stage 7 or stage 8 during the year.<\/p>\n

Frogfoot has already invested heavily in upgrading its network to handle the rotational power cuts over the past two years, and, according to Chorley, that trend will continue.<\/p>\n

“Sadly, it seems our predictions are correct, and load-shedding is with us for the long term,” Chorley said.<\/p>\n

“Over the coming year, we will invest R40 million in additional capital expenditure and further increase our resilience across the network as the demand for reliable energy supply increases.”<\/p>\n

\n

Now read: Openserve’s fibre plans for 2023 \u2014 and how its prices compare<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With 135,000 homes connected to its fibre network as of 2022, Frogfoot is the third-largest operator in the country by active customers. Chief business development officer Shane Chorley shared some details about its plans in the coming year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":453508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28470],"tags":[64179,20153,29952,35,21893],"class_list":["post-476683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fibre","tag-fibre-network-operators-fnos","tag-fibre-to-the-home-ftth","tag-frogfoot","tag-headline","tag-shane-chorley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476775,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476683\/revisions\/476775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}