Wireless broadband provider, iBurst has revealed an aggressive growth strategy, ahead of an anticipated boom in data services in the local market.
"We anticipate a capital expenditure rollout of R350 million on new infrastructure," says Alan Knott-Craig jnr, MD of iBurst SA.
Knott-Craig says the broadband provider hopes to more than double its subscriber base by adding 50 000 subscribers to its current totally of 35 000 subscribers.
"We attribute the anticipated growth to the overall increased demand for broadband services throughout SA," says Knott-Craig.
He adds that coverage expansion will take place evenly throughout the year, growing at 10 base stations at a time.
"We will continue to focus on improving our coverage in our existing areas and then will expand the coverage to tier 2 cities and towns," he explains.
It is anticipated that the infrastructure rollout will begin by the end of this month.
Feasible figures
MyADSL founder Rudolph Muller comments: "iBurst's growth figures are feasible since Telkom is struggling with ADSL support and installations."
He adds that iBurst is currently the only real alternative to ADSL for users who want to use more than 1GB of bandwidth per month, and there is a large potential broadband market looking to upgrade their 56k modem connections.
"High-speed Internet access is fuelled by both affordability (always on and flat-rated) and new bandwidth-intensive services like YouTube, which are specifically developed with broadband connections in mind."
Muller adds that local calls in SA remain expensive, which in turn makes dial-up access expensive. "Broadband access can, therefore, not only bring the advantage of high-speed, always-on access to consumers, but also reduce their monthly Internet bills."
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