The City of Cape Town is considering installing fibre optic cables in its sewer and stormwater pipes to accelerate the roll-out of telecommunications infrastructure in the metro.

The city said its mayoral committee on Tuesday recommended to its council that fibre optic network infrastructure provider, Link Africa, be used to conduct the installations.

Link Africa is well known for using the unique system to deploy internet cables. In 2012, the company acquired the exclusive rights to use the system in the country and in 2015, was granted the green light to carry out a similar project in the City of Tshwane after winning a lengthy court case against the city.

“The draft agreement brokered between the two parties protects the city’s rights as the owner of the infrastructure and will ensure that the city is indemnified in the event of Link Africa’s fibre optic cabling being damaged or claims arising by third parties,” a statement from the city explained.

The municipality conducted investigations through its engineering department and an independent consulting engineer and concluded that the risk of pipes getting blocked was within an acceptable tolerance level.

“The installation of fibre-optic cables in pipes will help to reduce the negative impact of open trenching on municipal infrastructure such as roads and pavements,” the statement read.

The ball now lies in the city council’s court, which is tasked with giving the project the go-ahead.

[Source – City of Cape Town, image – CC by Roshan Nikam]