iBurst upgrades ADSL

In a move that highlights the company's new focus, iBurst Business has released SA's first 20Mbps ADSL solution.

Newly-appointed iBurst CEO Jannie van Zyl says this is the first in a long line of network-based technologies it will release in the coming weeks. The solution will be entirely free of Telkom's infrastructure and technologies, he adds.

Telkom is the only company with an ADSL network, since it primarily owns the copper infrastructure to the home. Traditionally, operators have bought the access technologies from Telkom, and supplied the ADSL services that run over the infrastructure.

Most companies have been waiting for the release of the last mile infrastructure through the local loop unbundling process. However, the end of 2011 is the earliest the last mile can be expected to be released.

Van Zyl says iBurst was not happy to wait until then to begin a high-speed ADSL service. “Not many people realise that Telkom does not own the entire last mile,” he says.

The trend for local building developers is to lay their own copper infrastructure to gated communities, shopping centres and the like. Telkom does not own that infrastructure, although it has traditionally been asked to connect that copper to its network.

iBurst says it has now taken the initiative and started honing in on the copper that is not owned by Telkom to begin the roll-out of its own ADSL service. Once the local loop is unbundled, the company will take the product to the consumer.

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