Nokia, DST tackle ICTs

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has partnered with Nokia to implement ICT projects in SA.

It says the aim is to provide a thrust for innovation and growth across the country and to further broaden government goals.

This follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) by the DST and Nokia, establishing a framework on which potential areas of collaboration can be developed, funded and implemented.

The collaboration includes Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), whose focus will be on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, said minister of science and technology Naledi Pandor.

She acknowledged the role of ICT in stimulating economic growth. “This is why the DST is leading the implementation of the national ICT research, development and innovation strategy. In this regard, we view public-private partnerships to be of importance for us in achieving this objective.”

One of the key expected outcomes of this plan is an innovative indigenous ICT industry that addresses SA's ICT needs in the public and private sectors, and attracts investment by multinationals involved in innovation and manufacturing, said the department.

It added that in addition to a significant increase in the number of postgraduate students at Masters and PhD levels, these research and development outputs are gradually evolving into near-market prototypes, large-scale technology demonstrators and packaged solutions that can readily address key priorities of government, such as education, health and enhanced citizen interaction with government.

The partnership will focus primarily on mobile technology research and development and innovation, which should result in the development of new services, applications and content on mobile platforms, said Pandor.

VP for government relations at Nokia Middle East and Africa Jussi Hinkkanen said SA has a thriving telecommunication industry with a lot of potential for disruptive innovation.

“Our objective is to support local talent in developing their skills, and then integrate them into both regional and global markets.”

The DST says in addition to stimulating entrepreneurial activity and technological innovation, the collaboration intends to stimulate the interest of South African learners.

“We hope the educational focus under this collaboration will motivate thousands of South African learners to explore careers in technology,” said GM for Nokia SA Gerard Brandjes.

Key focus areas of the MOU include basic sciences education support programmes, where in conjunction with the Department of Basic Education, the DST and the Meraka Institute, programmes aimed at improved delivery of educational services through the use of mobile devices are being implemented.

These include the Mobile Learning for Maths (Momaths) and Nokia Education Delivery initiatives. The Momaths initiative is being expanded to include the Dinaledi schools adopted by the DST.

The mobile applications laboratory is another focus area. It's a joint initiative between the DST, infoDev, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Finland) and Nokia, which intends to train and build both the business and technical capabilities of the developer community.

“This will help them develop locally relevant content, solutions and services, and connect them to local, regional and international markets,” said the DST.

Also, through NSN and the CSIR, the parties will explore ways to enhance access to ICT for rural communities and support the wireless mesh network project.

NSN has also pledged support to SA's bid to host the SKA telescope.

The MOU will see the parties seek ways to enhance collaboration on large-scale computing, data transport and sensor networks.

“'Nokia Siemens Networks...[will] advise the SKA bid teams, from both a technical and business perspective, about the best options to transport the huge volumes of generated data to the high-performance computer centre of the SKA,” said Rufus Andrew, MD of NSN SA.

The company will assist with modelling the tremendous signal transport requirement, with the aim that these can be incorporated into the overall SKA system design.

“This role is currently an advisory and capacity planning one, with the intention of eventually provisioning the capacity to transmit and transfer the massive amounts of data that will be generated from the multiple radio telescope sites, estimated at a massive 15 Petabytes per second.”

Andrew explained that this equates to the total combined Internet data used by Africa and Europe.

NSN is currently assisting the South African bid team and the global SKA office in getting an accurate idea of what it will cost to facilitate this type of data transfer, as well as define the effective network capacity requirements to make it work.

From a local perspective, NSN SA is involved in lobbying and stakeholder engagement, with further support in the development of human capital for the SKA project, said Andrew.

“This includes various upliftment projects where computer training and skills development is taking place. We are also currently working with the Department of Science and Technology on a graduate programme to train technicians, who can then possibly work on the SKA project.”