Dark Fibre Africa

What Dark Fibre Africa does

Dark Fibre Africa (Pty) Ltd (DFA) is South Africa's premier wholesale open-access fibre infrastructure provider, founded in 2007 and headquartered in Centurion with operating offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban. A subsidiary of Maziv — which also owns residential fibre operator Vumatel — DFA finances, builds, installs, manages, and maintains a dark fibre network spanning over 20,000 km of ducting infrastructure and covering approximately 85% of metropolitan areas in all major South African cities, with 4,000+ immediately-connectable buildings and a 400,000+ building pipeline within 1 km of the existing footprint.

DFA's product portfolio is structured around two layers: Infrastructure products (Titan for mobile base-station backhaul, Peregrine Metro for intra-city connectivity, Peregrine Long Haul for inter-city backhaul from submarine-cable landing stations, Helios for last-mile access, Lumic for multi-tenant aggregation, and Tachyon colocation) and Managed Services (Calypte Metro and Calypte Long Haul, MEF CE 3.0-certified Magellan, and Business Broadband GPON). All products are backed by a 24/7 Network Operations Centre in Rivonia, 99.98% network uptime, and SLAs ranging from 99.5% to 99.98% with 4-hour restoration targets.

DFA operates exclusively as a wholesale open-access provider, selling to ICASA-licensed telecommunications operators, ISPs, enterprises, government, tertiary institutions, media companies, property developers, and system integrators on multi-year work-order contracts (1–15 years) with subscription or usage-based pricing. The commercial model is anchored by a December 2025 transaction in which Vodacom acquired a 30% stake in Maziv for R11.5 billion (~$672.9 million), the largest fibre deal on the African continent, supporting a pledged R9 billion capex program and an R800 million multi-year network upgrade that began Phase 1 migration in Gauteng from July 2025.

Name

Dark Fibre Africa

Legal name

Dark Fibre Africa (Pty) Ltd

Website

https://dfafrica.co.za

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Dark Fibre Africa is South Africa's premier wholesale open-access fibre infrastructure provider, operating a 20,000+ km dark fibre network serving ICASA-licensed telecom operators, ISPs, and enterprises across major South African metros as a subsidiary of Maziv.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Telecom Infrastructure Services

NAICS

Wired Telecommunications Carriers (517111)

akta.pro primary industry

Wholesale Wavelength, Spectrum & Dark Fiber Providers (IRU/Leases) (HDAIALAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Network Backbone & Core IP Transport (Long-Haul/Metro IP) (HDAIAFAG), Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) & Last-Mile Leasing Providers (HDAIABAG)

Keywords

• Wholesale fibre infrastructure
• Dark fibre leasing
• Open-access connectivity
• Managed connectivity services
• Fibre network operator

Headquarters

HQ city

Centurion

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Infrastructure, Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Dark Fibre Leasing: DFA leases secure transmission and backbone fibre infrastructure to telecommunications operators, ISPs, and other licensed network operators. Revenue generated from monthly recurring charges based on work order terms (1-15 years), distance-based pricing, and volume discounts.
2. Managed Services: DFA provides managed connectivity services including Calyte Metro/Long Haul, Magellan (MEF CE 3.0 certified), and Business Broadband. Revenue from bandwidth-based billing and managed service fees where DFA supplies and maintains equipment.
3. Colocation Services (Tachyon): DFA provides colocation space in aggregation nodes for customer equipment installation. Revenue generated from monthly recurring charges based on rack space leased, with additional fees for power consumption and cross-connects.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) finances, builds, installs, manages, and maintains a dark fibre network spanning over 20,000 km of ducting infrastructure across South Africa, providing wholesale open-access fibre connectivity to telecommunications operators, ISPs, and licensed network operators. The company offers a portfolio of dark fibre infrastructure products (base station backhaul, metro and long-haul connectivity, last-mile access, multi-tenant aggregation, colocation) and managed connectivity services (intra-city, long-haul, MEF-certified Ethernet, and GPON business broadband) on multi-year subscription contracts.

Product overview

Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) is South Africa's premier wholesale open-access fibre infrastructure provider offering a portfolio of dark fibre and managed connectivity services. The product portfolio consists of Infrastructure products (Titan, Peregrine Metro, Peregrine Long Haul, Helios, Lumic, Tachyon) providing raw dark-fibre connectivity options ranging from base station backhaul to last-mile access and co-location, alongside Managed Services (Calypte Metro, Calypte Long Haul, Magellan, Business Broadband) that provide rate-monitored, bandwidth-on-demand, and certified managed connectivity solutions. Together these products enable telecommunications operators, ISPs, and enterprises to access fibre connectivity on an open-access basis without building their own infrastructure.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Titan Flat-rate-based dark-fibre connectivity between high volumes of mobile base stations in ring or star architecture, designed for mobile network backhaul. Includes 99.5% availability and 4-hour restoration SLA.
• Peregrine Metro Dark-fibre infrastructure providing unrestricted intra-city connectivity between core sites, branch sites, and aggregation nodes with unlimited, uncapped throughput. Distance-based monthly recurring pricing with 1.4 routing factor.
• Peregrine Long Haul Dark-fibre inter-city core network backhaul between predefined sites along long-haul routes from submarine-cable landing stations to metros. Distance-based pricing with 1.1 fibre slack factor and minimum monthly rental.

Quantifiable outcome

• 99.98% uptime - industry-leading network reliability
• +4 more outcomes

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• CienacoreTechnology or Integration · 19 September 2025Strategic technology partnership for high-speed connectivity solutions. DFA partnered with Ciena (global leader in high-speed connectivity) to achieve record-breaking 1.6 Tbps transmission trial over single wavelength, setting world-first performance benchmark. Ciena provided WaveRouter and WaveLogic 6 Extreme solutions enabling integration of 400 Gbps, 800 Gbps, and 1.6 Tbps services within single router.
• WillcomsupportingImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 19 September 2025Willcom served as deployment partner for Ciena technology in the 1.6 Tbps fibre capacity trial. As Ciena partner, Willcom provided field deployment and implementation services for the record-breaking trial between Isando and Midrand.
• TeracocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTeraco serves as key interconnection point for DFA's long-haul fibre routes, with DFA connecting from submarine-cable landing stations through Teraco facilities in Isando, River Horse Valley, Great Westerford, and other locations. DFA provides convenient traffic handoff at Teraco data centres in Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Openserve: Telkom SA's wholesale fixed-line infrastructure division, the largest direct competitor to DFA in South African wholesale open-access fibre. Both sell dark fibre and managed connectivity to ISPs and MNOs on a national footprint, making product, customer, and pricing structures directly comparable.
• Vumatel: Sister company under the Maziv group, South Africa's largest fibre-to-the-home provider with 1M+ connected customers. Operates the same open-access philosophy as DFA and shares backhaul/dark-fibre interconnection, making it a direct functional peer in the South African open-access fibre market.

Broad incumbents

• Liquid Intelligent Technologies: Pan-African fibre operator (formerly Liquid Telecom) operating wholesale and enterprise fibre networks across multiple African countries. Comparable as a multi-country wholesale dark-fibre and managed-connectivity provider targeting carriers and ISPs, though at materially larger scale and broader geographic scope than DFA.
• Seacom: Operates subsea cable systems serving the African east coast and a terrestrial fibre footprint into South Africa. Overlaps with DFA on long-haul and metro fibre routes between submarine-cable landing stations and inland aggregation nodes, serving similar carrier and ISP customers.
• MTN GlobalConnect: Pan-African wholesale fibre and infrastructure arm of MTN Group, providing national and cross-border fibre connectivity. Overlaps with DFA on South African backhaul and managed services, and is also one of DFA's anchor wholesale customers, making it a hybrid customer-competitor comparable.

Emerging players

• CSquared: Google-backed open-access wholesale fibre operator active in Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, and Liberia. Operates an analogous 'wholesale-only' model targeting ISPs and MNOs, making it a structural peer in the African open-access fibre category, though at smaller scale and with no current South African presence.
• WIOCC: African subsea cable consortium and wholesale connectivity provider, owned by a group of African telcos. Competes with DFA on long-haul and submarine-cable-driven connectivity into South African aggregation nodes, with overlap on carrier and ISP customers.
• MainOne: West-African subsea cable and terrestrial fibre operator serving Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire with an open-access wholesale model targeting carriers and ISPs. Structurally analogous to DFA in the African open-access wholesale category, though geographically focused on West Africa.

Regional players

• Angola Cables: Angola-headquartered subsea cable operator (SACS, WACS) with growing terrestrial fibre footprint into southern Africa. Competes in the same wholesale long-haul and backhaul corridors that connect submarine-cable landing stations to inland aggregation points serving South African carriers.
• Paratus Africa: Namibia-headquartered pan-African network operator providing fibre, satellite, and data centre services across southern Africa. Competes in the southern African wholesale and enterprise connectivity market, with comparable carrier-grade fibre products aimed at ISPs and enterprise customers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/DarkFibreAfrica
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Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Dark Fibre Africa