How High-Speed Fiber To The Home Is Connecting South Africans To Digital Opportunities

Published 3 years ago
Lianne Williams

More South Africans rely on technology and the internet to go about their daily lives. That means high speed, reliable fibre to the home has become more of a necessity for people to experience what matters most and make new connections that transcend boundaries.

Fibre connects people to more of their favourite online content, educational programmes and loved ones from the comfort of their homes. Its speed, and reliability, also means they experience less of the dreaded buffering wheel when loading a web page, buffering YouTube videos or even having to decipher an onscreen character cloaked behind a blurry, pixelated screen while watching a Netflix series. 

Fibre is a way for people to stay in touch and informed, to continue learning, work towards a brighter future and stay entertained. 

Advertisement

Building connected lives, communities and societies

Vuma, one of South Africa’s leading fibre providers, has been giving South Africans the opportunity to do more, see more and dream of more with high-speed fibre to the home since 2014. 

“The future begins at home, and to successfully connect to it, you need high-speed fibre that gives you and your family the foundation to access unlimited benefits and opportunities,” says Lianne Williams, Head of Marketing for Vuma. “Our vision is to help build a connected nation where people across South Africa can access an abundance of information and knowledge, available at their fingertips, that empowers them to move forward into the information age.” 

Vuma has since connected over 800 000 South African homes, complexes and apartment blocks to super-fast, world-class open-access fibre broadband across Johannesburg, Cape Town, Limpopo and Durban. It builds an open-access fibre network, which means it isn’t a service provider but installs the infrastructure to drive transformation by tackling the digital divide and breaking connectivity barriers across the country. 

Advertisement

Vuma has over 60 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on its network, who work together to help build a connected South Africa with access to future-proof technology. 

How high-speed fibre to the home is giving South Africans access to more

Vuma’s fibre to the home brings South Africans together by connecting people to their loved ones, colleagues and communities at a time when many of the country’s people have to practice social distancing during the pandemic. 

Students can continue studying from home without disruption, thanks to the high-speed and reliable nature of fibre that allows for HD-quality video chats with educators and tutors, file downloads of any size in a matter of seconds and non-stop educational video streaming. 

Advertisement

Vuma also creates opportunities for the remote workforce to collaborate in real time over crystal-clear Zoom and Microsoft Teams calls, helping them meet deadlines with a lightning-fast, stable fibre line. 

Connecting the future generation to the information age 

“Vuma’s value extends beyond infrastructure, reaching ordinary individuals and empowering communities across South Africa. Our philosophy of ‘if we can, we must’ guides our value of creating opportunities for people and communities throughout the country,” adds Williams. 

In addition to connecting residents, Vuma also invests in connecting every registered primary and high school it passes when deploying the network to free 1Gbps fibre broadband internet. Since the launch of the Vuma Fibre-to-the-Schools project in 2015, Vuma and its ISP partners have connected over 420  schools, empowering more than 320 000 young people with access to the boundless opportunities of the internet – enabling teachers and learners to unlock new opportunities and expand their knowledge. 

Advertisement

Fiber to the home allows families to experience more online learning resources, the latest sport, and entertainment (streamed in HD and without disruption), news from around the world, endless social media browsing, hours of lag-free gaming, and so much more, from the comfort and safety of their homes. This technology allows South Africans to embrace a new tomorrow and choose the extraordinary. 

DISCLAIMER: Brand Voice is a paid program. Articles appearing in this section have been commercially supported.