Nokia today announced that fibertime is expanding its fibre broadband access footprint to include an additional 400,000 homes located across South Africa’s underserved communities.
The broadband rollout is part of fibertime’s larger goal of connecting 2 million homes by 2028. Fibertime will deploy a combination of Nokia’s IP and fibre access technologies to build semi-mobile networks in underserved areas, providing end-users with unlimited high-speed internet from anywhere in their home, business or community they live in.
Under the agreement, Fibertime will deploy Nokia’s Lightspan access nodes and Wi-Fi 6-enabled fibre access points, utilising Nokia’s ONT Easy Start to automate and simplify the fibre modem activation process and streamline deployments. Fibertime will also utilise Nokia’s 7750 Wireless Access Gateway to create a single SSID on their network, allowing customers to roam around the township and stay connected.
“With Nokia’s support, we’re able to significantly ramp up the roll-out of our low-cost, high-speed, fibre internet service to underserved township communities across South Africa. We’re now connecting 1,200 households a day to flexible, high-speed access – up to 950Mbps in some cases – without the need for contracts or debit orders.
Once a township is connected, customers simply buy vouchers at a local spaza, retail outlet or via their banking app, enter the voucher number in their fibertime app, and immediately have access to unlimited and unthrottled fibre-to-the-home internet at a cost of R5 per day,” said Danvig De Bruyn, CEO, fibertime.
To help further drive automation and scale across its network, fibertime will also deploy Nokia’s Altiplano and Network Services Platform solutions, along with its Altiplano Fiber Health Analyser, which can detect network anomalies and identify potential issues before they escalate.
“Nokia’s automation and AI-powered tools not only help us to improve operational efficiencies but also enhance the reliability of our FTTH network. We can now detect disruptions earlier and resolve incidents more quickly to ultimately improve the subscriber experience,” said Danvig De Bruyn, CEO, fibertime.
“Reliable broadband is critical for thriving communities—powering education, healthcare, and local economies. Yet too many people remain unconnected because of the unique challenges tied to where they live. With our fiber and IP solutions, we’re changing that, bringing broadband services to thousands of customers at once, in regions once considered too difficult to serve,” said Sandy Motley, President, Fixed Networks, Nokia.
The agreement to connect an additional 400,000 homes builds on a previous announcement between Nokia and fibertime™ to deploy FTTH networks across Cape Town, Johannesburg, Gqeberha, Mangaung and Stellenbosch.
