Vumatel and Huawei launch 50Gbps fibre in South Africa

The two tech companies, Vumatel and Huawei have partnered up to integrate 50-gigabit passive optical network (50G PON) capabilities into the fibre operator’s infrastructure.

Considering that this is significantly higher than the existing 2.5Gbps capabilities Vuma currently has, Huawei stated that following its testing phase, the deployment of this first-to-market technology is set to make considerably higher upload and download fibre broadband speeds accessible to Vuma customers across the provider’s FTTH network.

Francois Swart who is the chief technology officer at Vuma said the company’s investment in the testing and rollout of the new Huawei PON technology is future-proofing their network, which will allow them to enable much more capacity over the last mile fibre and increase speeds as their customers require. “[This is] approximately 20 times faster than the current capabilities deployed.” – he added.

Reigning as South Africa’s largest residential fibre provider in terms of homes connected, Vumatel overtook former fixed-line monopoly Telkom in 2019. The wholesale and networks division Openserve from Telkom, has fought back against Vumatel, but an inconsistent capital expenditure budget has hampered its ability to compete.

Vumatel increased its prices on 1 June and while inflation, interest rates, and the rand-dollar exchange rate remain high, the company said it kept its price increases between 1.1% and 2.1%.

The parent company for Vumatel, Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH), is also in the middle of a merger involving Vodacom’s fibre assets. The two companies are set to pool their fibre assets in a new entity called Maziv, and Vodacom will put up around R13.2 billion in cash.

Moreover, CIVH also owns Dark Fibre Africa. Vumatel also holds a stake in fibre and wireless network operator Herotel.

If the deal is approved, Vodacom will own a 30% stake in Maziv.