Why are our driveways being chopped upp Light shed on broadband in Plett…
Surprising as it may seem to many, Plettenberg Bay already boasts fibre broadband – in fact, it has the latest type. Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) and it has been rolling out since way back in 2017.
It was brought to estates such as Whale Rock Ridge and Gardens. River Club, Whale Rock Beach and Robberg Beach Find by local company Samar-link, based in The Crags.
They were responsible for installing the fibre cables in these areas and connecting them back to a secret location in Plett for connection to the internet.
End-user services are offered in these locations by locally-owned Internet Service Provider (ISP) Smartlight Solutions.
The technology industry is fast-moving by nature, with many mergers and acquisitions, and late last year saw the getting together of Samarlink with Octotel of Cape Town, who then took responsibility for the installation and maintenance of the physical fibre cables.
Since late November, we have seen holes being dug in many parts of Plett but mainly around Longships and more recently in the areas east of Marine Way.
New manhole covers and grey boxes mounted at the boundaries of properties mark the route of the fibre installation or rather, at this stage, the installation of the conduit designed to take the cables.
Once the conduit’s integrity has been tested, the fibre is blown into place.
While the appearance of a small grey box on the boundary of your property means that you will be offered fibre broadband, the lack of a box does NOT mean that you won’t, as each box can serve more than one property.
Octotel has invested in the tie-up with Samarlink and is continuing to lay cables all over Plett. But even a company from the Cape, with around 100.000 premises connected to its network, needs to earn a return on investment so will be driving towards end-user connections to get money rolling in as soon as possible.
Forget the rest of this, all you are interested in is when you are going to get fast fibre broadband.
Well, this is Africa and that’s not an easy question to answer!
Local entrepreneur Ian Crawford Brunt is the man behind the only local ISP; Smartlight Solutions has been offering fibre in Plett since those early days of 2017 to connected areas.
Smartlight is actively taking pre-bookings in newly-completed areas and installs will be rolled out hopefully in late February/early March, in the order received (register at www.smartlight.co.za).
ISPs and providers of goods and services in general When the actual rollout is about to begin in hopefully a few short weeks, you’ll be approached by your current internet provider with an offer to upgrade to fibre. In all likelihood, this provider will be a faceless possibly multinational corporation who will take your money, make a profit and distribute those profits to shareholders around the world.
They may offer some special incentive to get you to upgrade and they can do this by subsidising from one part of the country or even another part of the world to get you signed up.
It’s in your best long-term interests to spend your hard-earned cash in your own community spending it with a local person, one with routes in Plett, perhaps with children at the same schools, one that will make sure you are offered the best possible customer service.
Chances are that, like you, this person cares about the future of Plett and like you will still be here offering great service once those special offers are but a distant memory.
We should apply this to all buying decisions: use it or lose it.