Dark Fibre Africa

The ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) Team travel to Sandton almost every day to compete in the 8 to 5 rat race like most of The Average Joes in South Africa. Those of you who share this road with us would have noticed the thin line snaking down Sandton Drive (and other roads as well). Yes, the same line that slowed down traffic recently to the frustration of many.

Great was the relief when we discovered that it’s all for a good cause...

Dark Fibre Africa is not the end of Africa or anything of that sort but the name of a company that’s helping to bring light to Africa. Dark Fibre Africa is busy rolling out fibre optic cables that are needed to bring down the cost of broadband in South Africa.

A different approach…

Unlike other companies who lay cables mostly in pavements, Dark Fibre Africa, lay cables directly in our roads. They do this by cutting through the tarmac, laying the cable and then tar it all up again.

Even more interesting…

Dark Fibre Africa is not a telecoms provider but an infrastructure provider.

Their plan is simple: If you do not have a licence to provide telecoms services, piggy back on those who do have licences and lay down as many cables as possible and sell it to them.

They have so far managed to get Vodacom and another anonymous telecoms service provider onboard.

The ADSL South Africa Team

More time to surf the net

ADSL and other broadband users in South Africa who frequently surf the net will welcome the fact that Eskom has promised to halt ‘scheduled load shedding’ for now. This means, if correctly interpreted, that we will have more time to surf the net than during the recent bombardment of load shedding.

Now some of you might say, what load shedding, because it did not affect your Internet surfing or way of life at all, because you are one of the lucky ones to enjoy the services of a backup power generator or was at work or somewhere else during load shedding. Well, to be honest, most of The Average Joes in South Africa just did not, still not have the money to afford such luxury, and have been left with candles and other primitive sources of energy to combat the consequences of load shedding. God knows there is simply not enough money left for generators and such when we are already struggling to cover the raising cost of fuel, food, et cetera. It is therefore great news that Eskom has promised to halt scheduled load shedding for now.

Can we trust Eskom to keep their word? Hell no some will say, and to be honest, you can count ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) among the sceptics. Despite this, the idea or prospect of no load shedding is music in the ears of many consumers in South Africa.

Winter is on its way as many of us have observed and felt over the last couple of days. It will be interesting to see if Eskom will be able to keep their promise of no ‘scheduled load shedding’ when the Winter is here. It is no secret that thousands of heaters, electric blankets and geysers will be working over time to keep the nation warm this coming Winter.

We have the funny feeling that unscheduled load shedding, not that Eskom kept to a schedule in the first place, is going to be more of a nightmare than ‘scheduled load shedding’. After all, nothing stops Eskom from load shedding the living hell out of us whether it is scheduled or not.

Despite the above, we need to use the extra time we have to surf the net before the next load shedding starts. :-)

The ADSL South Africa Team