February - the month of love. And because we love having you as a client, we're doing another quick Valentine's Day give-away.

The 14th subscriber to send "I love Cape Connect Too!" with their name, physical address and cell number to hello@cape-connect.com will win a R500 Bonsai Tree gift card, to spend on their website for whatever your heart desires.

Meet the Team

I have yet to see this member of our staff without a huge grin on his face. Mo joined our team in 2024 and is currently assisting with installations, on-site support and network builds as he delves into nearly every aspect of our business.

Mo is from Kramat, Macassar. In his spare time he enjoys online gaming, real-life fishing and working on cars. He (very) recently married Aaqilah - you may still see the stars in his eyes if you look closely.

I asked him about one skill he has developed and he had this to say:

"The one thing that stood out for me that I have done was building a car from a bare frame which was gifted to me while I was in high-school. I build it up throughout my high-school career with parts and tools laying around the house. My father was a mechanic so the tools were available for me to readily use, so I navigated my way around using them. I had to equip myself on how to use the tools from a mechanical perspective to rebuilding my own engine and rebuilding my own gearbox, replacing each bearing to mix and match gear sizing, from there I worked my way to the body using parts that we had laying around. I started exploring different shapes with each panel. Welding, cutting, grinding, smoothening and spraying. I have mixed my own paint as it is a unique car so I wanted a unique colour. I ended up respraying my car about 5x to get the perfect purple pearl look I wanted. What intrigued me the most and kept me up at night was doing endless research with regards to doing my own wiring of the loom and upgrading my computer box from a very old system to a modern computer system and all of this was done by trial and error. To say I surprised myself would by the skills that i have picked up through trial and error is an understatement but what really stood out for me from this project is to being consistent and learn through your mistakes and grow from it. Take note of what you did wrong and build on it. You should keep on being persistent in what you do,only then you'll reach your desired end goal. So I can confidently say that I have built my own car from scratch."

Growing up he always wanted to be an aircraft mechanic, aviation mechanic or aircraft maintenance technician (AMT). This is one young man who is flying high in life!

Tech Talk

So what exactly is fibre? It's quite literally a piece of glass.

Melted glass is stretched to less than the width of a human hair, many kilometres long. That extremely delicate thread is then encased in a thin coloured plastic layer that provides strength.

There is a standard colour code for the plastic surrounding fibres that allow us to tell which one is which - blue, orange, green, brown etc. This means you can take one end of a very long roll of fibre, find the same colour on the other end, and create a link between the two ends without having to figure out which one is which.

The colour-coded fibres are grouped into an additional protective sheath that creates the bigger "cables" you see ISPs running underground and into pipes. These can contain 2, 12, 24, up to thousands of individual fibres, and those undersea cables between continents are made of exactly the same stuff.

Any joins in a fibre are referred to as a "splice" - the single strand ends are melted together using a blast of extreme heat from two electrodes in a splicing machine, then encased in a heat-shrink plastic tube with a metal rod to keep it straight (a splice protector). If you want to see this in action, ask to watch one of our technicians splice your fibre - like the "African Splicing Hazard Bird" did below.

Fibre in its protective sheathing is tough - to a point. But if bent beyond a certain angle or subjected to extreme forces, it will shatter and break. You will notice all our fibre installations have gentle curves instead of sharp corners to prevent damage and loss of the light that is shot down those fibre strands to provide an internet connection. Too sharp a bend and your internet connection will die, as the light simply can't make it around that corner.

Best practice for any fibre service is clean splice connections, solid installation of the fibre away from risk of damage, and a gentle bend radius on those tiny threads of glass. Where a shorter fibre goes between your wall and your router, it should not be coiled tightly, bent or damaged - or you will completely lose your light signal and associated internet access.

Our technicians are registered and qualified FOT splicers - as am I. If you have any questions about the fibre we install, you are welcome to ask us.

From the Archives

If you want a good night's sleep, don't own an ISP. There are way too many things that go bump in the night...

Let's start with the one we really really don't want to see on our security cameras. Thieves. All our sites have comprehensive security, including Ajax devices, cameras, virtual trip-wires, armed response on speed-dial, vibration sensors etc etc. So any dodgy persons approaching in the night are rapidly picked up and notifications come screaming in to our cellphones, along with our armed response and other site owners nearby. Some of these miscreants are petty, destructive types who break walls and doors to get at a few copper wires and batteries. Some steal to order - picking specific items off a site. Others are sophisticated gangs that will remove 2 large solar panels in under 4 minutes and disappear into the night. We can publish a rogues gallery of faces over the years - but very few have been tracked down and dealt with by the authorities. Except the one not so bright guy who tried to break through our armored glass office doors, then later came wandering past to see his handiwork while we were on-site examining the damage with police & security - was promptly recognized and chucked in jail.

Thieves love misty nights, and if one site is being targeted, it will bring out everyone who has sites in the area to try nail these guys down once that first alarm goes off.

Thieves are not the only night-bumpers picked up by our cameras. Regular visitors include a variety of buck, spotted genets, porcupine, a spider big enough to trigger the motion alarm, lizards, snakes, owls, mongoose, caracal, eagles and guinea-fowl. It's a virtual safari of beasts! Fortunately Ajax motion detectors come with "pet immunity" and most of these don't set off alarms in the middle of the night as they are recognized as "not human". (Ask us if you need a security system that your dog doesn't trigger, which links easily to your existing armed response)

Then there are the more scary bumps in the night. I'm not really one to believe in ghosts, but there are certain sites and buildings where you do not want to be at night. Things caught moving out the corner of the eye, floating orbs on camera that make no sense, a hair-raising feeling on the back of your neck, half-heard voices or the impression you are not alone, sounds that don't belong there... Work at these places is best scheduled for daylight hours, no matter what you do or don't believe.

We're fond of saying that the internet never sleeps. And often neither do we. Please excuse the occasional bags under our eyes.

Reminder - Cape Connect Fibre Price Increase

As announced in our January newsletter, pricing on our own fibre network will be increasing on 1 March 2025 for the first time in 5 years to ensure we can continue to provide you with our top-notch internet service, multiple redundant routes, backup power at all our POPs, and a comprehensive peering network that runs like a Rolex.

Our average increase across packages will be approximately R100. To put it into perspective, this is equivalent to around two 2 litre milk containers and loaf of bread - less than your average takeaway order from the nearest fast food drive-through. Finalized prices will be published soon on our website, our application forms, and communicated to our fibre clients by email.

January Survey

Thank you to all who took the time to complete our January survey - it is very much appreciated and has provided us with valuable feedback on how we are doing as your ISP. Congratulations to Rodney L who won our prize! If you missed our survey but still want to tell us what we are doing right, you are welcome to email hello@cape-connect.com at any time, or leave us those 5 stars on Google. (Our "hello" inbox is not a support, sales or accounts email address - any queries for these should be sent to the correct departments for immediate attention.)

Company News

During December we switched our international service to the new Equiano cable. Read the press release on our Facebook page here.

Shot of the month

We're often out on site at very odd hours and in very strange places - but this means we get some awesome views. Here's this month's picture perfect shot.

Wishing you a month of love - or at the very least a lovely month

Michelle Bainbridge

Chief Internet Artisan

Cape Connect Internet (Pty) Ltd