Parkhurst breaks ground on faster broadband

The Parkhurst Residents and Business Owners Association (Praboa) chairperson, Cheryl Labuschagne and Vumatel CEO, Niel Schoeman turned the first sod on 13th Street outside Parkhurst Primary School.

This came only a few months after the association had proposed that the Parkhurst community consider installing fibre to the home to get better and faster broadband speeds.

New player in South Africa’s fibre market, Vumatel beat many large telecommunication companies, including MTN, Vodacom and Telkom with a bid offering free 4Mbps access, running an open access network and building a sustainable network.

Labuschagne said she was happy that she would, by October this year, have faster internet speed.

“It is important to thank Ryan Hawthorne for putting up his hand and… [running] with the initiative; and it is just as important to thank the team that volunteered to publicise the initiative,” she said.

“The ceremony is proof that we live in a community that knows how to take a problem and turn it into something positive.”

Schoeman said this was the first community-led initiative he had been involved with and the project would serve as an example of what could be achieved when communities work together with the private sector.

“We will be digging up 54km of sidewalk in the next six months. It will be hard, but residents should have faster broadband speeds by the end of February,” he said.

The company has opened a shop in the suburb to help residents with queries.