Net Nine Nine: Turning Township Fibre Into an Institutional Asset Class
As global markets look for long-term growth and stable yields, digital infrastructure is emerging as one of South Africa’s most closely watched asset classes. Fibre has quietly moved from a “nice to have” utility rollout to a sector serious institutional capital wants exposure to, with lenders and funders now underwriting rollouts at a scale that would have been unthinkable for a township-first network a few years ago. Few businesses illustrate that shift as clearly as Net Nine Nine.
In this episode of Meet the Management, Marc Ashton sits down with Albert Oosthuysen, CEO of Net Nine Nine and Evotel, to unpack how open-access and township-focused fibre networks are being repositioned from social infrastructure into high-value, investable economic assets. It’s a conversation about what happens when a sector built to bridge a digital divide starts to also look, on paper, like a genuinely attractive place to park long-term capital.
About the guest
Albert Oosthuysen is the Group CEO of Net Nine Nine and Evotel, two of the businesses now brought together under the CYNK holding company he launched in mid-2025. He founded Evotel in 2015 as an open-access fibre network operator, and followed it in 2020 with Net Nine Nine, an internet service provider built specifically to bring fibre into townships and lower-income communities, starting exclusively in the Kagiso township before expanding into eight of South Africa’s nine provinces. He studied Entrepreneurship at Stellenbosch University before building his career in South Africa’s fibre and telecoms sector, taking both businesses from single-site rollouts to nationally recognised operators inside a decade.
That combination gives Albert a rare vantage point on the industry: he has built both an open-access wholesale network and a consumer-facing ISP designed around affordability and reach into markets most operators have historically overlooked. Having run both sides of the fibre value chain, he’s equally comfortable talking infrastructure economics with lenders as he is talking last-mile rollout with municipalities and community leaders on the ground.
Why this conversation matters
Fibre in South Africa has typically been priced and built for the suburbs first, with lower-income and township markets treated as an afterthought, if they were served at all. Net Nine Nine’s model inverted that, going into underserved communities from day one and combining the fibre network operator and internet service provider roles into a single, leaner business built to keep monthly packages affordable, with uncapped fibre offered per household rather than the per-device pricing that keeps mobile data expensive for the same customers.
That approach has scaled fast enough to attract serious institutional attention. Net Nine Nine has secured close to R2 billion in syndicated funding, arranged and underwritten by RMB, to accelerate its rollout toward 1.5 million homes passed by 2028, in a sector where demand in township areas has consistently outpaced that of wealthier suburbs. It’s a clear signal that funders now see connectivity infrastructure in underserved markets not as a development project, but as a long-duration, yield-generating asset class in its own right, and it puts Net Nine Nine at the centre of a broader race among new entrants to scale township fibre before the market consolidates.
It also raises the harder questions this conversation gets into: what it actually takes to build and finance infrastructure in areas without existing bulk power, roads, or straightforward municipal cooperation, and what happens once a sector built on social impact starts needing to answer to institutional investors and lenders with their own return expectations and timelines.
In this episode
This is a conversation about what it takes to turn connectivity into capital-grade infrastructure. It covers:
- Albert Oosthuysen’s entrepreneurial journey building Evotel and then Net Nine Nine into key players in South Africa’s fibre landscape
- the mission behind Net Nine Nine, and how affordable fibre in townships and low-income areas unlocks local micro-economies
- why institutional funders and investors are actively backing digital infrastructure plays like Net Nine Nine
- the practical realities of navigating municipalities, regulation, and policy while rolling out infrastructure at pace
- how open-access networks and closed, vertically integrated models each shape the economics of reaching underserved markets
- where South Africa’s digital infrastructure sector is heading next, and what that means for capital flows into the space
Watch the full episode to hear Albert Oosthuysen unpack how Net Nine Nine went from a single township rollout to a nationally scaled, institutionally backed business, the lessons that came out of building infrastructure in markets most operators overlooked, and what it will take to keep closing South Africa’s digital divide.
About Bridgement
Net Nine Nine is a South African-owned fibre internet service provider and network operator built to bring affordable, uncapped fibre to underserved communities. Launched in Kagiso in 2020, it has since expanded into eight of South Africa’s nine provinces, pairing the fibre network operator and internet service provider functions in one business to keep costs and monthly packages down for households that have historically been priced out of fixed-line internet, with entry-level packages starting from around R379 a month. The company also runs a free-fibre-for-schools initiative, connecting township and village schools across provinces including Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal to high-speed internet in support of digital learning.
Net Nine Nine sits alongside Evotel, an open-access fibre network operator Albert Oosthuysen founded in 2015, under the CYNK holding company he launched in July 2025 to bring the two businesses, and several others, together under one strategic umbrella. Net Nine Nine’s growth has been underpinned by close to R2 billion in syndicated funding arranged and underwritten by RMB, backing its target of passing 1.5 million homes by 2028 and cementing its position as one of the fastest-scaling township-focused fibre operators in the country.
