SEACOM acquires South African internet service provider

SEACOM has announced its acquisition of Cape Town-based Internet service provider and managed services provider, MacroLan. The acquisition is in line with the pan-African telecom enabler’s strategy to extend the reach of its fibre network to more metropolitan areas across South Africa, as well as to bolster its managed services capability for business customers.

MacroLan will become SEACOM’s Cape Town regional office and will lead SEACOM’s expansion in the Western Cape market for fibre Internet access to the business-customer premises.

MacroLan manages an expanding fibre network serving a growing number of Cape Town’s commercial users. It also owns and manages fibre infrastructure and access at numerous commercial buildings, offering clients access to a range of fast, effective and well-priced business broadband services as well as value-added services.

Byron Clatterbuck, CEO at SEACOM said: “SEACOM has grown significantly following the successful launch of SEACOM Business which focuses on bringing broadband and cloud services directly to commercial business users. The MacroLan acquisition is a continuation of this story, through which we will grow the SEACOM family of talented staff and satisfied customers in the Western Cape.”

Says Paul Johnson, CEO at MacroLan: “This transaction gives us the backing of a major pan-African telecom partner, in turn offering us access to the resources and muscle we need to grow our business. Our existing customers will continue to experience the same high levels of service to which they are accustomed, with the added benefit that our network will now integrate directly into SEACOM’s African networks and submarine cable investments.”Related: Liquid Telecom fibre spreads to 39 counties

Adds Suveer Ramdhani, Chief Development Officer at SEACOM, said: “As an established, profitable business with a history of consistent growth and a strong focus on the customer experience, MacroLan is a valuable addition to our portfolio. This acquisition strengthens our on-net fibre reach into the Western Cape, giving us a great platform for further expansion. We will leverage MacroLan’s experience with fibre infrastructure deployment to further jointly develop our national network.”

The SEACOM Business division offers best-in-class connectivity and cloud services in South African metros, with Fibre Internet Access options ranging from 25Mbps up to 1Gbps. The offering for commercial customers and property managers leverages SEACOM’s abundant and scalable capacity on its undersea cable system and continent-wide IP-MPLS network.

Some of the benefits of SEACOM’s fibre network for property managers and businesses include an open access last mile and international network, a low contention ratio on the standard service as well as dedicated offerings with no contention, symmetrical upload and download speeds that enables users to download and upload data at the same speed and no fair usage policy or out of bundle charges.