Fibreco
AcquiredSouth Africa, ZA · 520 employees on LinkedIn · 1 known investors
South African open-access wholesale carrier that built a long-haul terrestrial fibre optic backbone network across the country.
Also known as FibreCo · Fibreco Telecommunications · FibreCo Telecommunications Pty Ltd
Investors · 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026FibreCo (FibreCo Telecommunications Pty Ltd) is a South African telecommunications infrastructure company established in 2009 as a joint venture between Convergence Partners, Cell C and Internet Solutions. It was set up to deploy a fully managed, open-access long-haul terrestrial fibre optic network across South Africa, aimed at addressing a market in which backbone transmission capacity was concentrated with a single large operator, keeping fibre and bandwidth rental fees—and therefore end-user communication tariffs—high.
The network was planned for construction in three phases. Contemporary accounts describe the planned build as an open-access national optical network of roughly 12,500 km, with a stated ultimate coverage target of 14,000 km. Alongside capacity, FibreCo offered 24/7 monitoring and maintenance of the network for its tenants, plus additional value-added services depending on customer requirements. Later directory profiles describe the company as offering infrastructure, management, connectivity and cloud services to customers in South Africa, with an address in Sandton, Gauteng.
The fibreco.co.za domain now resolves to Seacom, a pan-African connectivity and digital services provider that launched a broadband submarine cable system along Africa's eastern and southern coasts in 2009 and markets subsea and terrestrial infrastructure, cloud, security and managed services.
Founding story
FibreCo was formed in 2009 by Convergence Partners, Cell C and Internet Solutions in response to the concentration of South African backbone transmission resources in the hands of one large operator, which resulted in expensive fibre and bandwidth rental and high communication tariffs that were seen as constraining growth in the country's telecom industry.
Business model
FibreCo operated as a wholesale, open-access infrastructure provider: it built and owned long-haul terrestrial fibre and made capacity available to tenants such as government, mobile operators, internet service providers and banks, while providing fully managed monitoring and maintenance of the network on a 24/7 basis and additional value-added services.
Latest developments
The fibreco.co.za domain now presents Seacom's pan-African connectivity and digital services business, which markets a fibre backbone of more than 35,000 km, six subsea cables, 38 international points of presence, physical presence in eight countries, clients in 17 countries and more than 4,000 enterprise customers.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
FibreCo's build was described as South Africa's biggest optical transmission network project and as an open-access alternative to the incumbent-dominated backbone transmission market; earlier attempts by the country's main operators to jointly build a shared optical transmission network had been shelved for lack of consensus.
An open-access, carrier-neutral national backbone offered on a fully managed basis, positioned to reduce transmission costs relative to the incumbent-controlled alternative.
Technology
The backbone used a ZTE next-generation OTN solution built around the high-capacity, long-haul ZXWM M920 platform, supporting 10G/40G with an evolution path to 100G, an open architecture for network expansion, reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexing (ROADM) for faster service provisioning and flexible traffic grooming, and protection mechanisms at both equipment and network layers. ZTE's ZXTOP510 software was used for network planning and design. The build used microduct for the plant exterior to simplify engineering and reduce construction costs, and hybrid fibre to serve varied application scenarios. FibreCo applied customisation standards described as stricter than the prevailing European standards.
Go-to-market
Government bodies, network operators, internet service providers and banks requiring long-haul backbone transmission capacity in South Africa, as well as businesses and individuals served through connectivity, voice and cloud offerings.
Geography
Focused on South Africa, with a national backbone build and an address at 5 Woodlands Drive, Sandton, Gauteng. Extension of the network into neighbouring countries was under consideration.
History
The company was founded in 2009 as a joint venture between Cell C, Internet Solutions and Convergence Partners. It launched its website at fibreco.co.za in April 2011. In September 2011, FibreCo President Andile Ngcaba and ZTE Senior Vice President Chen Jie signed a contract making ZTE the exclusive supplier for the optical transmission network, which ZTE was to complete over three to five years. The optical backbone project was launched at Bloemfontein in May 2012, attended by provincial and municipal officials as well as the FibreCo president and CEO and the newly appointed CEO of Cell C. The company also began considering extending the network into neighbouring countries.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 3
launches, deals, and filingsFibreCo launched the optical backbone project in Bloemfontein, attended by government officials including the governor of Free State Province and the mayor of Bloemfontein, the FibreCo president and CEO, and the newly appointed CEO of Cell C.
FibreCo President Andile Ngcaba and ZTE Senior Vice President Chen Jie signed the project contract, making ZTE the exclusive supplier for what was described as South Africa's biggest optical transmission network, to be delivered over three to five years.
Convergence Partners announced that investee FibreCo's new website had gone live.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Fibrecofibreco.co.za · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Fibreco do?
- South African open-access wholesale carrier that built a long-haul terrestrial fibre optic backbone network across the country.
- Who are Fibreco's investors?
- Fibreco's investors include Convergence Partners.
- Where is Fibreco headquartered?
- Fibreco is headquartered in South Africa, ZA.