As demand for data increases amid ADSL challenges, residents in some of Johannesburg's northern suburbs are leading efforts to enable better connectivity.
The CraigPark Residents Association (CRA) - based in Craighall Park - will offer residents fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connectivity as part of a security initiative similar to one announced by its Parkhurst counterpart last week.
This is according to Ryan Roseveare, CRA chairperson, who says residents will be able to connect to the high-speed network by October. He says the network will enable better closed circuit television surveillance through its partnership with security company CSS Tactical.
"There will be no cost to residents directly. CSS will be funding the capital outlay to build the fibre network and we will open access so that any Internet service provider can connect to it and offer services to our residents," says Roseveare.
Although Roseveare cannot disclose company names, he says three ISPs have already expressed interest in coming on board. "We won't prescribe what ISPs residents should use."
The CRA runs a Public Space Security (PSS) initiative, which provides a centralised neighbourhood security service. "Residents can subscribe to that service, where we [CRA] collect the money and distribute it to vendors [CSS]," notes Roseveare. He says residents will need to sign up to the security service in order to access the new high-speed network.
'Unreliable ADSL'
Ryan Hawthorne, technical advisor to the Parkhurst FTTH initiative, noted the area has had "unreliable and slow ADSL", because it is too far from the Rosebank-based Telkom exchange.
"We experience outages and very slow speeds," he adds.
Telkom points out that its ADSL service is subject to network availability, distance, copper quality and line sync speed limitations. Pynee Chetty, Telkom spokesperson, says the "ideal distance" for good network speeds is within 5km of the nearest exchange. "The further you go, the less quality you have, because more copper means more attenuation."
Mark Walker, director of insights and vertical industries at the International Data Corporation for Middle East, Turkey and Africa, says SA could learn from the successes of regions like Dubai, which placed emphasis on FTTH in its technology plans more than a decade ago.
However, says Walker, the Dubai market is vastly different to SA, owing to the higher relative affluence of the consumer. "What was key in their model was the pre-planning, which is an example to others."
Roseveare expects Craighall Park's FTTH to deliver speeds far beyond the 10Mbps mark, while additional monthly costs will depend on which ISP residents choose.
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