The City of Joburg is seeking private sector partners to develop the multimillion-rand Joburg Broadband Network Project (JBNP). This forms part of its aims to move towards a "smart city" concept, running off a mix of telecommunications technologies.
The city owns infrastructure to provide a telecoms platform, as well as a private telecoms network licence. It is trying to aggregate its infrastructure, which is held by entities such as City Power and the Johannesburg Roads Agency. This includes fibre, copper and electricity grids.
Douglas Cohen, project consultant for ICT sector support at the City's Department of Economic Development, says a private sector partner with a value-added network service (VANS) licence, or access to a VANS licence would be the most likely fit. A request for information (RFI) will be issued on Monday.
He explains the city is considering setting up a special purpose vehicle to facilitate ownership of the network. This would aim to bring down telecoms costs and improve service delivery in diverse areas, ranging from traffic control to library services.
"We need to map and put all our assets in one pot," Cohen says.
"The development of a citywide broadband network has been in the pipeline for some time and is in line with international trends in municipal broadband deployment."
Broadly, he says, lower communication fees will reduce the costs of establishing and running businesses. The city will also be able to offer free civic Internet zones.
Not shy to invest
While unable to give exact figures, Cohen says Joburg would, for instance, provide R100 million in funding for the project, in exchange for R400 million from a partner. "We're not shy to invest and we will make our all infrastructure available for the project."
The city has access to two frequency bands, but these are limited, he notes, so it will push for access to the WiMax spectrum.
"At the moment, we don't want to be too prescriptive about what will be included in the JBNP. We want to hear from anyone who has ideas and can contribute to the project."
The City of Johannesburg, the highest population density area in SA, covers an area of 1 644 square kilometres, which will present a challenge to the development of a citywide network. "Due to the diversity of communities and geography, we anticipate a range of technologies will be employed in the final solution," says Cohen.
Through the RFI process, the city aims to identify potential partners for roll-out of the broadband network. The process will shortlist potential respondents to build demonstration networks where they can showcase their technology and project management skills.
Cohen says it is envisaged a request for proposals will be issued by September or October, and the successful bidder will be appointed before the end of the year.
A compulsory RFI briefing session will be held on 8 March in Saxonwold.
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