Finnfund has invested €2 million in Fibertime Group to provide affordable fiber internet access to underserved communities in South Africa.
With this investments, the goal is to connect up to 1.8 million homes to the internet. The project will utilize Nokia’s fiber internet technology and Fibertime Group’s affordable pay-as-you-go pricing model.
Approximately 80/percent of the country is currently without access to fast and affordable broadband internet. Fiber internet is expensive and only available in affluent suburbs, which exacerbates the digital divide in the country.
After Finnfund’s initial €2 million investment in Fibertime Group in 2023, around 65,000 households in South Africa’s underserved townships gained access to the internet.
This new follow-on investment will enable the company to expand to new townships and connect more homes.
Nokia provides fiber access nodes for fiber exchange points and fiber modems to create WiFi networks, while Fibertime Group offers unlimited data on a time-based pay-as-you-go model and provides digital wallets to facilitate micropayments through its subsidiaries fibertime™ and VulaCoin.