Fibre companies start roll out

The Observatory Library, Village Green and Obs Swimming Pool have been earmarked as public WIFI facilities.

Residents and visitors will be able to use 100MB of free internet access per day in the vicinity of these buildings, the Observatory Civic Association (OCA) said.

Various companies have also continued their efforts of installing fibre optic cabling in Observatory to provide fibre connections to residents.

Octotel plan to begin trenching in Observatory this month and offers a open access network where customers can choose the internet service provider (ISP) they'd like to use.

Fibre cables will be laid underground fibre and will be connected to a small wall box on the houses the cables pass. Octotel will then connect the fibre from the box to the home once residents place sign up with an ISP

Another company planning to roll out fibre in Obs is Vumatel. According to Caroline van der Westhuizen, they've received permission from the City to begin the first phase of the roll out.

This will include stringing fibre cables along the existing low-voltage electricity pole infrastructure.

Homes that already have an electricity pole in front of their property, will be part of the first phase of the roll-out.

A second phase will be implemented upon completion of the first phase and after approval from the City.

They anticipate that Phase 1 of the fibre roll out will be completed in the first areas by mid-December, and will advise on progress for Phase two.