Lakefield's anticipated broadband roll-out kicks-off in the first week of September as Teralink and OTEL team up to deliver super-fast Internet access to residents and business owners.

"Spring starts on a high speed note for Benoni as Internet access delivered via fibre optic cable promises to forever change the working and leisure lives of Lakefield residents for the better," said Rad Jankovic, OTEL CEO.

He appealed to residents to complete a 60 second survey at www.otelafrica.com so OTEL can better customise its fibre service offering to the suburb. With a 30% uptake from local residents, OTEL expects to be able to deliver uncapped fibre Internet from as little as R599 per month.

"Joining the rewarding world of unlimited high-speed Internet for under six hundred Rand a month will help residents reduce their household expenses. Satellite TV, for example, becomes expensive old technology as uncapped high-speed Internet means streaming video becomes accessible," Mr Jankovic said.

He explained that Teralink, a fibre network operator, will be breaking ground next week as the Lakeview fibre project's infrastructure provider. OTEL Telecoms, for its part, is the phase one exclusive access provider that residents will contract with. Both firms are well-known independent telecoms operators with a solid history of providing access to world-leading Internet services in local residential and business communities across South Africa.

While speed has traditionally been the number one reason for businesses and consumers to upgrade to fibre; the technology is also environmentally-friendly, not prone to cable theft, experiences low latencies, and is impervious to the lightning strikes that characterise Benoni's highveld environment.

Just last week, the nearby Boksburg Magistrate Court sentenced a man to 106 years in jail for his role in a huge copper cable theft syndicate.

"Despite the best efforts of public and private law enforcement, copper cable theft is still very prevalent within the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. Fibre offers residents the twin benefits of high speed and low crime," says Mr Jankovic.

Fibre-To-The-Home, as the Lakeview project is characterised, is the installation and use of optical fibre from a central point directly to individual residences to provide unprecedented high-speed Internet access. FTTH dramatically increases the connection speeds available to computer users compared with technologies now used in most places.

From a modest operation in 2008, OTEL is today a licensed FTTH and business-to-business provider of VoIP & broadband Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions.

Its nationwide dedicated network and cutting-edge technology positions OTEL as one of South Africa's leading telecoms providers with a specific focus on meeting the needs of SMMEs. Its wholesale and retail fibre solutions are designed to increase profitability and reduce downtime and include hosted PBX, free email, server hosting, cloud services, as well as full-featured call centre solutions amongst other value-added voice and data services.