While celebrating bringing fibre cables to over a million homes in SA, Vumatel has announced that it will be rolling out 10Gbps fibre into homes fairly soon. Internal trials are being conducted in partnership with ISP Cool Ideas, and consumers will have access to the package when they end.
Vumatel’s got the need for speed
Vumatel CEO Dietlof Mare told TechCentral that this monstrous speed offering is aimed at a small, “technically astute” portion of the home broadband market.
10Gbps home internet has been unheard of so far. The closest we’ve seen to that is a still impressively quick 1Gbps, and that’s ten times slower.
TechCentral explains that such speed demands the right gear, and so rather than just your standard modem-router combo you’ll need a computer capable of handling 10Gbps as well. You’ll also have to hook your house up with Ethernet capable of delivering 10Gbps (up and down) internet because even high end Wi-Fi just can’t put out at that speed.
The trial period will go on for around a month, and could hit the market in the same amount of time. Mare told TechCentral that launching 10Gbps fibre commercially is to demonstrate the prowess of Vumatel’s network. Naturally, it will only be available in areas with the right cables, around 60% of Vuma’s network.
Pricing hasn’t been determined yet, but it will depend on whatever agreement Vumatel and its ISP partners come up with. Mare also said it’s the ISPs’ call as to whether they provide 10Gbps internationally or keep it local.