Tank Industries: Connecting South Africa for a Digital Future
Despite the number of South African internet users increasing by 494,000 (1.2%) between 2021 and 2022, approximately 19.21 million people are still not connected, many of whom reside in rural areas. The need for ubiquitous connectivity beyond the country’s urban spaces was one of the topics discussed at the 2022 Digital Council Conext Digital Infrastructure Summit, the aim of which was to keep stakeholders on the pulse of digital infrastructure deployment.
Internet access for everyone, everywhere
The panel discussion on ‘Ubiquitous Connectivity: Methodologies for Connecting the Unconnected’ was comprised of Herotel CEO, Van Zyl Botha; Vumatel COO, Dewald Booysen; TooMuch Wifi MD, Ian Thomson and Frogfoot CEO Abraham van der Merwe, with Africa Analysis Director, Dobek Pater, as moderator. One of the key points raised was how connectivity solutions differ the further one gets from densely populated urban environments. For example, fibre-to-the-home is used in built-up areas, but a combination of fibre-to-the-home and Wi-Fi is employed in peri-urban locales, while Wi-Fi, satellite, and/or hotspots are used in remote regions.
An exciting development for those living in the country’s townships was announced during the discussion. Fibre points will be installed in certain residents’ homes along with a router which will enable them to provide neighbours who purchase tokens with internet access. This not only empowers more South Africans to participate in the digital economy but also creates income-earning opportunities too.
Tank Industries is a manufacturer and distributor of telecommunication interconnect products for both copper and optic fibre infrastructure, so these developments are of significant interest to the company.
Connecting to the cloud
Increased connectivity across the country also bodes well for the data centre boom. Currently, there are over 50 active data centre locations in South Africa, but this number is growing by the day, fuelled by demand from companies increasingly opting for the security, scalability and cost-effectiveness of the cloud. Moreover, the data centre industry contributes 6% to GDP as well as to employment, meaning that more are needed to stimulate the country’s economy.
Tank Industries represents the world-renowned R&M range of future-proof data centre connectivity solutions in South Africa and was recently appointed as the equipment supplier of choice for one of the biggest data centres to ever be built in the country.
Tank will be working with more data centre companies and fibre network operators to propel South Africa’s digital future forward.