As a result, the partnership will expand access to affordable, high-quality and reliable broadband services across the country.

The collaboration follows BBI’s mandate from the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) to grow the country’s ICT infrastructure through its Backbone Network Expansion Strategy. 

By modernising the national network, the technology giant and BBI aim to make broadband more accessible and cost-effective while helping close connectivity gaps between rural and urban areas and between South Africa and leading global digital economies.

This boost in speed and performance will support the significant growth in access networks envisioned under SA Connect, while allowing massive data transfers between cities and data centres in real time.

The upgraded network will also support the country’s new optical fibre route linking Johannesburg to the Kopfontein border, the company revealed.

Once completed, the backbone will stretch across all nine provinces and reach South Africa’s borders with Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

Gift Zowa, CEO of Broadband Infraco, said: “We are bridging the digital divide on two fronts, closing the digital inequality gap at home and narrowing the gap between South Africa and the world’s most industrialized nations. We are addressing one of SA Connect’s primary goals, the DCDT’s flagship broadband connectivity project, to make connectivity inclusive and bring stable, high-capacity broadband to all South African communities and government facilities by 2030.”

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