VELD FIRES CUT OFF YOUR INTERNET!

The dry winter fire season presents a critical threat to fibre optic networks, like it recently happened in Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria where thousands of our clients had to suffer, just because of one match stick, and one scratch.

During these dry months where grass turned yellow, fierce veld fires tear across the parched grasslands in townships and villages, and anybody can just about start fire anywhere, for no specific reason.

And, Net Nine Nine is discouraging people from starting open veld fires that cause damage to a lot of infrastructure, especially fibre network poles and cables that supply you with internet.

They cause massive connectivity disruptions by destroying both above-ground and below-ground infrastructure, depending on the type of connection – aerial or trenching.

Suddenly, a small spark ignites, exploding into a fast-moving veld fire that races toward a line of utility poles.

During South Africa’s bone-dry winter months, a single spark can trigger a multi-day disaster. Driven by ferocious winds and parched fuel loads, veld fires routinely exceed temperatures.

While these fires threaten lives and livestock, they also wage a silent war on our digital infrastructure, instantly crippling the fibre optic cables that keep the nation online.

Extreme close-up of a black fibre optic cable wrapped around a wooden pole. The flames lick up the pole, causing the plastic casing of the cable to bubble, melt, and eventually snap.

Aerial fibre deployment is popular because it is fast and affordable, however, it is highly vulnerable during the fire season, as the extreme heat alone is enough to warp the microscopic glass strands inside the cable, scattering the light pulses and dropping your internet speeds.

When the direct flames hit, the protective outer polymer jackets melt away entirely.

But worse, as wooden utility poles burn down to ash, kilometres of critical backbone fibre crash into the burning veld below, severing entire towns from the grid.

Many believe that trenching fibre underground provides perfect safety from veld fires, but it doesn’t.

When intense veld fires burn over a trench, they turn the topsoil into a furnace.

In South Africa, many shallow or non-standard trenches are highly vulnerable, as this intense heat radiates downward, baking the soil and melting the protective plastic PVC conduits.

As the conduits collapse, the sensitive fibre cables are crushed and exposed to extreme heat and the delicate glass fibres undergo thermal expansion, permanently distorting their structure and completely cutting off the light signals.