Every so often, a technology emerges that fundamentally changes what we demand from our telecommunications networks.

The internet did it.  Smartphones and 4G did it again, transforming how and where we consumed data.  The rapid uptake of social media and streaming accelerated that demand, while the shift to remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated just how dependent our economies and everyday lives had become on fast, reliable connectivity.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next major inflection point.

With nearly three decades in the optical fibre industry, I have seen how quickly new technologies can change the demands placed on telecommunications infrastructure.  AI has the potential to drive another change of significant magnitude.

AI requires enormous computing capability and, as adoption accelerates, the data-centre infrastructure supporting that capability will continue to grow.  Those data centres, in turn, need to be connected into a telecommunications ecosystem capable of moving extraordinary volumes of data at speed.

For the fibre industry, this opens up an exciting new chapter, one that will drive greater scale, new investment and continued innovation in optical fibre technology.

Over the past decade, a significant focus for South Africa’s fibre network operators has been the expansion of access networks, particularly fibre-to-the-home.  That important work continues.  Large parts of our population and economy remain underserved, and extending reliable broadband connectivity is essential to bringing more South Africans into the digital economy.

At the same time, AI and the expansion of data centres are introducing a new infrastructure requirement that demands increased attention.

While the previous investment cycle brought fibre progressively closer to homes and businesses, the emerging AI economy will also require significant investment in long-haul and backbone infrastructure connecting data centre to data centre and city to city.

The challenge is not simply carrying more data.  AI places greater demands on capacity, latency and resilience as vast volumes of data move between increasingly distributed computing environments.

Think of telecommunications networks as the motorways of the digital economy.  As AI drives unprecedented volumes of data traffic, the capacity and resilience of the networks connecting this expanding digital ecosystem become increasingly critical.

For network operators, the question is therefore not only where the next connections will be built, but whether the underlying network architecture is ready for the scale and performance demands now emerging.

Importantly, this is not a choice between AI infrastructure and connecting more South Africans.

We have to do both.

And the response will not simply be about deploying more fibre.  The technology itself is evolving to meet the performance requirements of AI-era networks.

YOA Cable’s majority shareholder, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (YOFC), has placed this at the centre of its AI-2030 Strategy, focused on developing AI-optimised optical connectivity infrastructure.

This includes G.654.E ultra-low-loss fibre for high-capacity, long-distance backbone transmission and high-performance OM4 and OM5 multimode fibre for high-speed data-
centre environments.  YOFC is also advancing next-generation technologies including multi-core fibre, which has the potential to substantially increase transmission capacity, and hollow-core fibre, targeting the ultra-low latency requirements emerging from distributed AI computing and data-centre interconnection.

For YOA Cable, our partnership with YOFC provides direct access to future-focused optical fibre technology and ongoing research and development.  This positions YOA to bring advanced optical fibre technologies into South Africa and the broader Southern African market as network architectures and customer requirements evolve.

The telecommunications industry has navigated major technology shifts before.  Each has changed what we expect our networks to deliver.

AI has the potential to do so again and at considerable scale.

For South Africa’s fibre industry, this is the beginning of an exciting new phase: continuing to extend the reach of connectivity while building the capacity, resilience and technology required to support the next generation of the digital economy. 

By Pieter Viljoen, the CEO of Yangtze Optics Africa Cable.