A few months ago, we mentioned that a new player -Dark Fibre- was entering the Internet Service Access Provider’s space. It seems they aren’t wasting much time as they have already started laying down their fibre optic cable in Harare’s CBD.
It will be interesting to see how quickly DFA’s Open Access model is taken up as that’s pretty different from what we get from Liquid Telecom.
The “open access” nature of DFA’s network means that it is made available on equal terms to multiple Internet Service Providers (ISP). Liquid sold to multiple access providers (not service providers) but it is rumoured they sold to ZOL at a much lower rate making it tough for other access providers to compete with ZOL.
Another advantage that Open Acess networks usually love to claim is due to the fact that their model avoids duplication of infrastructure, an issue that’s been discussed locally. Supposedly, this should lead to sharing infrastructure costs among providers which in theory should result in better pricing.
Hopefully, their model makes for a more competitive market and can force the price down as consumers have been complaining about the cost of the internet since the two most dominant players; TelOne and ZOL upped their pricing not so long ago.
