Work on city’s fibre network marred by disruption

Work on the city’s high-speed, world-class fibre optic network commenced last Wednesday but was temporarily halted from last Thursday after a group of people posing as members of a political party, reportedly threatened workers.
At time of going to print a representative of the contractor, however, said that the impasse of the past week has seemingly been resolved and that construction is scheduled to resume today (Thursday).
Polokwane Municipality has approved wayleave to a Gauteng based company, to install the lines and the network has capacity to deliver connectivity of up to one gigabyte per second to every home, according to the company’s Account Manager, Nazlie Sallie. Sallie said that the open access network means that those residents who decide to take up a service, can select from over 50 internet service providers to supply internet and other services over the fibre network. The network can also form the backbone for possible CCTV cameras in the suburb.
“The construction teams have already started to put up barricading and to open up trenches to lay fibre ducts. They will open and close driveways within the same day to minimise disruption and ensure that residents have access to their homes,” Sallie added.
In the second stage, the teams will work within the trenches and fibre will be pulled through the ducts. Fibre is also installed into the fibre box on boundary walls.
Specialist re-instatement teams will start the process of restoring pavements to their original condition in the final stage. “The completed work will be subjected to a rigorous inspection process and quality assurance. Vumatel will re-instate all affected areas to as close to their original condition once civil work is completed,” Sallie assured.

Story: BARRY VILJOEN
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