Surf's up in Umhlanga - on fibre!

So take the plunge and sign up with the new Fibre to the Home (FTTH) - super speedy, uninterrupted and cost effective internet connectivity, which has just arrived in the greater Umhlanga area with a SPLASH!

To bring FTTH to a user's home takes a partnership between three different companies: the first company lays the actual physical "fibre" under the ground. The second company provides the "bridge" (light) across the fibre between the ISP (internet service provider) and the end user. The third company delivers the internet service (voice, video and data) into packages to the end users. These layer three partners are the ISPs.

In Umhlanga, the three partners are Link Africa (who lay the fibre), MITSOL (who "light up" the fibre) and a variety of well-known ISPs who provide the internet and voice services.

This "open access" model is beneficial for consumers, as they are able to choose a data package that suits them from one of the ISPs, all of whom offer different incentives to sign up with them. This creates a self-regulated platform on price and service, to ensure the ISPs continue to offer attractive deals

MITSOL director Warren Bricknell discusses the benefits of FTTH over traditional copper wire infrastructure. 'Fibre optic technology is cheaper for cable operators to lay and maintain, more resilient to the elements and has no "resale" value, which makes it fairly unattractive to the second-hand market, unlike copper wire.

'Fibre optic cable is relatively "future proof" and currently has the capacity to meet any current and future demands, therefore the layer one part of FTTH (the physical fibre) will require no further upgrades in the near future.

In both upper and lower Umhlanga, fibre has already been laid and lit by Link Africa and MITSOL, including the Hawaan Forest Estate and Izinga Estate.

Hawaan Forest estate manager Krishni Naidoo believes their FTTH has vastly increased the internet speed and accessibility to residents within the estate.

Naidoo outlines the FTTH process for Hawaan estate, 'It began with technicians laying the fibre on the estate, and a couple of weeks later, all homes in Hawaan were passed with fibre. .A major "plus" factor to having the fibre optic cable laid by Link Africa is that they hardly disrupted traffic on our estate - instead of digging up roads and verges, they have mastered the concept of using existing service ducts as well as stormwater and sewer pipes, and it entails simply threading the fibre through the piping.

'It was quick and easy with minimal interruption for the estate. MITSOL lit up the fibre once it was laid. And then, all the residents had to do was choose one of the different data packages that suited their needs. The variety of choice on the data packages from the different ISPs certainly gives the market a bit of a competitive edge, which ultimately benefits our residents.'

Bricknell, who has been energetically driving the FTTH initiative throughout KZN for the past year, is convinced that FTTH has already started to revolutionise the way homes and businesses operate.

Says Bricknell, 'With the FTTH options of high-speed data transmission, the world is our oyster in terms of communications and what we can achieve. Just to give some examples of speeds, a two hour movie can be downloaded much faster, depending on the speed for which you have signed up: 10mbps - it will take 21 minutes 28 seconds, 20mbps - it will take 10 minutes 44 seconds, 50 mbps - it will take 04 minutes 17 seconds, while at a speed of 100mbps it will only take 02 minutes, 08 seconds to download.

'Upload speeds are equally fast - just think what this could do for your business when using Cloud-based services, or storing your personal data such as precious photographs and movies in the safety of the Cloud.

'Furthermore, according to the Fibre to the Home Council - an international body that regulates FTTH systems around the world - an added bonus of having a fibre to the home service installed is that it boosts the capital value of a home from two per cent up to around five per cent.'

For more information, please contact MITSOL on (031) 566-2451, email info@mitsol.net or visit http://.ftth.mitsol.co.za.

If you have any questions about FTTH - come along to the FTTH Open Day in Umhlanga Village on Saturday 5th March, at the Chartwell parking area. Fibre experts will be on hand between 08h00 and 13h00 to answer your queries.