MAZIV embarks on $21M SA fiber expansion project

MAZIV, the parent company of South African fiber infrastructure providers Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) and Vumatel, has embarked on a 400 million South African rand (US$21 million) infrastructure expansion project which aims to upgrade its overall network footprint and infrastructure.

The news came a week after South Africa's Competition Commission (CompCom) blocked a major investment deal between MAZIV and telecoms operator Vodacom.

Vumatel (Vuma) recently achieved a milestone of passing over 2 million homes in South Africa, while also extending its network to over 50,000km of fiber laid.

Vuma's coverage includes 1 million homes passed within the last three and half years in underserved, lower-income areas.

"The accelerated expansion of our network into underserved areas embodies the MAZIV vision and values. We believe that high quality broadband is critical to allow all South Africans to access opportunities on the global stage. We have rolled out coverage in areas like Soweto, Khayelitsha, Umlazi and many more. These are traditionally overlooked communities," said Vumatel Chief Operations Officer Dewald Booysen.

"Vuma's approach is also community-orientated and enables us to work with the community to overcome challenges that have traditionally hampered efforts. Our commitment to the community is also driven by our vision to connect every school we pass with a free 1GB connection, and we have now connected over 700 schools," Booysen added.

Combined with DFA's 15,000km of fiber, MAZIV's fiber reach is extensive throughout South Africa.

DFA's fiber network infrastructure expansion project aims to enhance the provision of connectivity hardware to allow high-speed connectivity to more businesses and contribute to the country's digital transformation efforts, enabling greater access to online services and improving economic growth.

DFA said the project has been in trial phase since February 2023, and is now being rolled out at scale in three phases over an estimated period of 18 months.

Vumatel's network includes over 50,000km of fiber while DFA has 15,000km of fiber installed. (Source: Freepik)

The infrastructure upgrade will ensure faster delivery of network services to customers and improved network performance, while providing a scalable solution to meet increasing demand for connectivity services from customers, MAZIV said.

DFA Chief Technology Officer Andreas Uys said that since it first launched its fiber-to-the-business (FTTB) connectivity services in 2015, its business customer base has grown and evolved considerably.

"DFA is investing heavily in enhancing and upgrading existing infrastructure environment to ensure we are able to deliver high volumes of FTTB connectivity and provide customers with a consistently high standard of service delivery," Uys added.

DFA offers managed connectivity services, also known as the "data link layer," which operates on a flat node-to-node basis using dedicated connections that provide a direct and secure network connection.

As part of the upgrade project, DFA will deploy 800 additional Dry Underground Distribution Cabinets (DUDC) units. These units have been developed and manufactured in South Africa to DFA's specifications.

"The additional units will dramatically shorten the distance that data travels from the customer and over the network using dedicated cables, ensuring the shortest possible installation times," DFA said.

"The additional DUDC units and dedicated cables aggregate traffic closer to the customer, which at the end of the day means faster deployment and installation and our customers can expect a significant improvement in their connectivity experience," added Uys.

Vodacom-MAZIV deal hits a speed bump

Last week the industry was shocked when South Africa's Competition Commission recommended that Vodacom's plans to acquire a 30% stake in MAZIV be blocked.

Vodacom had planned to invest over R13 billion ($680 million) to buy stake in MAZIV which Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub previously told Connecting Africa would assist in narrowing the digital divide by enabling affordable access to connectivity in South Africa's underserved areas.

The competition watchdog did not agree and said it had found no major benefits from the proposed transaction that were not already in existence.

The CompCom said that the proposed transaction "is likely to substantially prevent or lessen competition in several markets and that the conditions offered do not fully address the resultant harm to competition."

"Further, the public interest commitments provided by the merger parties do not outweigh the competition concerns," the watchdog said.

Vodacom said it was disappointed by the CompCom's view but that this was not the end of the process and it would plead its case to the Competition Tribunal.

The deal had been on the cards since November 2021, when Vodacom announced it would make a strategic investment in MAZIV's parent company Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH).

CIVH owns Vumatel and DFA, which merged and rebranded as MAZIV in September 2022.

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