💦💣 How Johannesburg Water Breaks the Internet — & Why Fusion’s SD-WAN Is the Biscuit 🍪

Ronald BartelsRonald Bartels
3 min read

If you’ve ever experienced a sudden fibre outage in Johannesburg while sipping your morning ☕ and wondering why your Zoom meeting isn’t connecting… chances are, the culprit wasn’t a cyber-attack or solar flare — it was a burst water pipe and a cowboy with a TLB. 🕳️🚜

One of the biggest yet least talked-about causes of broadband outages in Joburg is the TLB-happy approach Johannesburg Water takes when repairing water mains. When a pipe bursts, they descend on the scene like it’s the Wild West — no maps, no consultation, no checking for wayleaves. They just rip open the verge with earth-shaking enthusiasm, turning beautifully laid fibre ducts into confetti. 🎉💥📡

🚫 A Law Unto Themselves

Unlike responsible operators who plan maintenance and consult GIS data, Johannesburg Water operates like a rogue agency, answering to no one but their own plumbing gods. Fibre operators aren't consulted, no dig plans are followed, and the result? Entire streets, businesses, and neighbourhoods go dark. 📉

Businesses that rely on cloud apps, card machines, medical claim processing, VoIP phones, or remote workers suddenly grind to a halt. No internet = no operations. The knock-on effect is not just irritation — it’s lost revenue, missed SLAs, and angry customers. 🧾🔥

🛠️ Enter Fusion’s SD-WAN | The Cavalry Arrives

Luckily, there is a way to outsmart the backhoe brigade. Fusion’s SD-WAN platform, paired with Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), is the biscuit that makes your internet tea complete. 🍪☕💪

Fusion SD-WAN allows you to bond multiple internet connections — like fibre and LTE or fixed wireless — into one virtual link. If a cowboy with a TLB slices your fibre, your SD-WAN instantly switches over to wireless, seamlessly. No interruptions, no dramas, no WhatsApp groups exploding in panic. 📲🚀

Fusion’s Antares platform even lets you monitor the state of all links in real-time and automatically reroute traffic through the healthiest path. It’s like having a bodyguard for your bandwidth. 🛡️📶

✅ The Smart Choice for a City of Surprises

In a city where water leaks are more common than working traffic lights 🚦, Fusion SD-WAN is the only rational defence against trench warfare on your internet cables. Whether you're a pharmacy chain, a law firm, or just a small business with big uptime needs — the combination of smart routing, multi-path resiliency, and remote management is the antidote to the chaos.

So, if Johannesburg Water’s TLBs are tearing through your productivity like a toddler with a crayon on your lounge wall — don’t just complain. Upgrade. Fusion’s SD-WAN is the biscuit. 🍪✨

No more downtime. No more excuses. Just resilient, rock-solid connectivity, no matter what the cowboys dig up next. 🤠🕳️📶


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Written by

Ronald Bartels
Ronald Bartels

Driving SD-WAN Adoption in South Africa