STL and Frogfoot Partner to Bring Affordable Broadband Connectivity to 20,000 Homes in Soweta, Johannesburg

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Oct. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- STL (BSE: 532374) (NSE: STRTECH), a global data network solutions company, announced that it has entered a technology partnership with South Africa's Frogfoot to provide Fibre To The Home (FTTH) infrastructure in Soweto. With this partnership, Frogfoot, an open-access fibre network provider, will use STL's innovative connectivity solutions to enable affordable, reliable broadband connectivity to up to 20,000 homes and lower income groups in the Protea Glen East and West areas of the South African township of Soweto. 

The collaboration comes on the heels of President Cyril Ramaphosa appointing a Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Affordable high-speed broadband connectivity is a key to 4IR and can play an important role in propelling the country towards a connected society.

Frogfoot will utilise STL's Air-blown FTTH solution, a cutting-edge solution ideal for space constrained fibre deployment, to bring FTTH to Johannesburg. It will see the benefits of lower costs and faster time to market, while providing affordable fibre connectivity to users. Traditional cabling solutions require up to 25% more space and cost more. STL's solution aims at considerably reducing installation costs, thus passing on cost benefits to end users.

"Working with STL enables us to add advanced capabilities to our FTTH infrastructure rollout and strengthen our commitment to offer the most reliable broadband connectivity at affordable total cost of ownership," said Abraham van der Merwe, Founder and CEO of Frogfoot. "As we deploy, STL will continue to be an invaluable strategic partner providing innovative solutions and deep knowledge of data network solutions."

Customised for faster and efficient FTTH deployment, STL's innovative Air-blown solution offers a unique combination of five key benefits:

• NextGen cable design helps air-blown solution fit in smallest micro ducts, just 5 mm in diameter, making it future-ready for upcoming data demands and enabling easier right of way for operators
• Re-engineered outer coating helps achieve nearly 2 times faster cable blowing compared to traditional cables, ensuring faster time-to-market
• Best-in-class compact fibre packing and crush resistance provides utmost durability, making the solution suitable for metro FTTH premise deployment
• Available in fibre counts ranging from 4 to 24, which is ideal for different FTTH network architectures
• Compatible with existing tools and easy to handle due to lightweight cable design

"We, at STL, have always been committed to empower people through our innovative solutions," said Richard Eichhorn, Director Global Sales, Connectivity solutions, STL. "Our FTTH solution is ideal for space constrained fibre deployment and makes broadband affordable through its cutting-edge features. We are sure our joint efforts will benefit thousands of people."

STL's Air-blown premise cabling solutions ensure affordable fibre connectivity in lower income groups, and ensures that more people have access to education, skills development and training materials online.

About Sterlite Technologies Ltd - STL

STL is a global leader in end-to-end data network solutions.

We design and deploy high-capacity converged fibre and wireless networks. With expertise ranging from optical fibre and cables, hyper-scale network design, and deployment and network software, we are the industry's leading integrated solutions provider for global data networks. We partner with global telecom companies, cloud companies, citizen networks and large enterprises to design, build and manage such cloud-native software-defined networks.

STL has innovation at its core. With intense focus on end-to-end network solutions development, we conduct fundamental research in next-generation network applications at our Centres of Excellence. STL has strong global presence with next-gen optical preform, fibre and cable manufacturing facilities in India, Italy, China and Brazil and two software-development centres.

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Guneet Kaur             
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Vinay Rawat
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