South Africa’s digital economy is accelerating fast. With a projected 92% increase in national data centre capacity by 2030, rising from 501.1 MW to 962.4 MW, according to Africa Data Centres, businesses across sectors are demanding faster, more reliable internet connections than ever before. However, there's a bottleneck that continues to frustrate progress: fibre deployment.
Justin Mackenzie MD of VO Connect
The narrative is familiar to anyone in the telco resale space. Despite fibre being available “in the ground” or even within a building, getting a business customer live can take anywhere from six to twelve weeks. Between municipal wayleaves, permissions from landlords, construction delays, and scheduling issues with third-party contractors, the process remains stubbornly slow, even in metro areas. That’s a month or more of lost productivity for the customer, and a month where the reseller isn’t billing.
In an economy where every day of uptime matters, this has real financial consequences. For businesses requiring immediate connectivity, it’s a momentum killer. And for executives in large ISPs or telco integrators, it’s a scale inhibitor. The result? Slow fibre installs are costing business growth.
Above promises of faster fibre, the answer to this problem could lie with sidestepping the delay altogether.
A growing number of resellers are leveraging wireless-to-fibre hybrid connectivity models. Instead of waiting for fibre, they are switching on business customers using high capacity, licensed microwave links, getting them connected in hours or days, then migrating them seamlessly to fibre when it’s ready and continuing to use the wireless as a reliable backup on a fully redundant solution. This isn’t a workaround. It’s a strategic rethink.
This model should become standard practice across the channel, capable of activating businesses in as little as 24 hours or less.
Wholesale ISPs with their own deployment teams can significantly impact the efficiency of connectivity deployments and execute installations more rapidly than those who rely on outsourced field staff, ensuring that the lead to cash cycle can take place in less than one week. Additionally, operating microwave connectivity on licensed spectrum may help avoid the congestion and reliability issues that are sometimes associated with lower-tier wireless internet service providers using unlicensed bands.
Another area of innovation is in contractual arrangements. Instead of offering separate agreements for different stages of connectivity, some providers now offer a single contract that encompasses both immediate wireless activation and eventual fibre service. In this model, wireless connectivity serves as an initial activation layer and later functions as a backup once fibre is in place. This approach aims to streamline the customer experience and provide continuity of service.
The failover benefit is significant. In an environment where resilience is increasingly critical, especially with the rise of hosted cloud services, video collaboration, and latency-sensitive apps, having a secondary path baked in offers real peace of mind and zero downtime.
For businesses seeking connectivity, faster deployment timelines can have a significant impact. With the ability to sign agreements, arrange installations the next day, and achieve connectivity in the next week, businesses could scale their operations more rapidly and respond to business needs more efficiently. This accelerated process has the potential to streamline business growth and operational agility.
It’s a model that’s resonating strongly with ISPs and telco integrators that service large enterprises, mines, campuses, and other midmarket or multi-site operations. Especially in areas where fibre access is technically available but practically delayed.
And with the government pushing for expanded broadband access in underserved areas, the flexibility of this model provides an immediate tool for digital inclusion. While fibre remains the long-term goal, licensed microwave allows for a rapid start.
Critically, this isn’t a compromise on quality. Microwave has often been misunderstood, but on managed spectrum with the right equipment, it’s high capacity, stable, and perfect for enterprise workloads. The market perception is finally catching up.
For a country stuck between growing digital demands and the slow pace of infrastructure rollout, that kind of responsiveness may be exactly what South Africa’s connectivity landscape needs.
About VO Connect
VO Connect is a national licensed telecommunications provider operating on licensed microwave spectrum with fibre integration. Founded in the early internet era, VO Connect specializes in enabling ISPs and telco resellers to deliver agile, reliable connectivity to enterprise clients. Known for rapid deployment, service excellence, and creative problem-solving, VO Connect helps resellers unlock billing faster and scale smarter.
