South African connectivity and cloud-based services company Seacom has acquired MacroLan to extend reach of its fibre network to more metropolitan areas across the country.

The Pan-African telecom enabler says it also wants to bolster its managed services capability for its business customers.

According to Seacom, MacroLan will become its regional office in Cape Town and will lead the company's expansion in the Western Cape Province for fibre internet access to its business-customer premises.

MacroLan is a Cape Town-based ISP. The company began operations in 1997 and manages fibre networks which serve a growing number of Cape Town's commercial users.

The company owns and manages fibre infrastructure, offering clients broadband as well as value-added services.

CEO of Seacom Byron Clatterbuck said the company has grown following a successful launch of one of its products. "The MacroLan acquisition is a continuation of this story, through which we will grow the Seacom family in the Western Cape."

CEO of MacroLan, Paul Johnson says, "Our existing customers will continue to experience the same 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."

According to MacroLan's blog, the current fibre optic cable rollout in SA is accelerating and is fast becoming an important factor when people opt to buy a business or even a home in certain areas.

"Local internet providers, as well as local and national government agencies and state owned companies such as Telkom and Dark Fibre Africa, have started to lay the groundwork of SA's fibre optic future."

According to a 2017 State of the Internet report by Akamai Technologies, South Africa's internet penetration as a percentage of population has declined to 25% from 47% in the previous year.

"Year-over-year changes were positive across the MEA region in the first quarter of 2017, led by Namibia with an 83% gain. Egypt and South Africa had the smallest increases at 6.2% and 7.6% respectively, while the remaining surveyed countries all saw double-digit speed gains compared with one year prior."