Copper wire telecoms technology is another year old next year, with the emphasis on ‘old’. That’s the message from fibre-based independent broadband provider, Otel Communications, which says businesses should making moving to fibre their top New Year’s Resolution.
 
Otel also questions whether copper telecoms cable has outlived its usefulness. “It’s astonishing that most SA business parks are still reliant on ADSL provided over ancient copper wire technology that first appeared between Boston and New York in 1884. No business can claim to be cutting-edge when its communication foundation is 133 years old,” explains Otel Communications CEO, Rad Jankovic.
 
With 250 000 kilometres of fibre in South Africa, prioritising a copper-to-fibre New Year’s switch will soon realise tangible business benefits in 2018, adds Mr Jankovic. Not only is a dramatic reduction in technical support time one of the major benefits of fibre, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are an integral part of fibre-based business broadband. These bespoke contracts guarantee an almost 100% uptime that would be impossible with copper-based ADSL.
 
SLAs can be customised for each client, depending on their unique requirements. “Nothing is set in stone,” says Mr Jankovic, “We strive to ensure a customer service experience that personalises response times, configurations, redundancy and more. In business nothing is guaranteed, except one’s fibre-based Internet access. This reliable uptime is the real beauty of fibre because of the positive effect it has on a business’s productivity,” Mr Jankovic explains.
 
Fundamentally, copper wire has severe reliability, predictability and speed constraints compared to high-speed, always-available fibre optic underground cable delivered through FTTB (Fibre To The Business) rollouts by independent operators like Otel.
 
Fibre also offers uncapped & uncontended Internet via LTE and connectivity solutions that are not vulnerable to cable theft, nor weather-based service interruptions. Most individual businesses within office parks are, however, most attracted to fibre by the significant savings on local, international and mobile voice calls.
 
With higher speeds and uncapped bandwidth, the end user does not only experience faster Internet, but also has the opportunity to achieve further savings on quality VOIP solutions and also take advantage of various over-the-top (OTT) services like offsite security monitoring, secure data storage, amongst others.
 
Otel’s ability to deliver VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services on top of fibre links at rates 65% cheaper than traditional fixed-line voice prices has seen it experience tremendous growth since SA’s telecoms market was liberalised more than a decade ago.
 
From a modest regional operation in 2008, Otel is today a licensed nationwide provider of VoIP & broadband Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) telecommunications solutions, all powered by fibre.
 
"Internet access delivered via fibre optic cable has forever changed the lives of business and residential communities for the better. It really is time for business to get with the rollout programme," concludes Mr Jankovic.