South Africa’s national broadband infrastructure company, Broadband Infraco, has partnered with Huawei to deploy a nationwide intelligent all-optical backbone network, strengthening the country’s digital foundation under the SA Connect national broadband strategy. The initiative aims to deliver affordable, stable, and high-quality broadband access across urban and rural communities.
As a state-owned enterprise under the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, Broadband Infraco is executing the upgrade as part of its Backbone Network Expansion Strategy. The project focuses on extending ICT infrastructure nationwide, reducing connectivity gaps between cities and underserved regions, and improving South Africa’s global digital competitiveness.
The backbone leverages Huawei’s Optical Cross-Connect technology, enabling high-speed, flexible transmission using 800G wavelengths. This upgrade supports massive real-time data transfer between cities and data centres, powering critical applications across healthcare, education, e-commerce, e-government, and the broader digital economy.
Through its all-optical backbone and partnerships with local service providers, Broadband Infraco has already connected more than 13,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots and over two million rural homes. The new network will also support a strategic optical fibre route linking Johannesburg to the Kopfontein border, enhancing cross-border connectivity across the Southern African Development Community.
Once complete, the backbone will span all nine South African provinces and extend to borders with Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, and Zimbabwe. Huawei will continue working with Broadband Infraco to expand national broadband infrastructure and support South Africa’s goal of inclusive, high-capacity connectivity for all communities and government facilities by 2030.
