2010: SA should learn from Deutsche Telekom

By Nicola Mawson, Contributing journalist

Johannesburg, 14 Jul 2006

SA can benefit from the lessons learned by Deutsche Telekom in Germany, says GM for business development and strategy at T-Systems SA, Gert Schoonbee.

Deutsche Telekom was responsible for about 75% of the IT and telecommunications services required for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Its business customer unit, T-Systems, served as general contractor for the services and linked all the stadiums and FIFA offices through a high-speed network, Schoonbee says.

"With T-Systems having provided 75% of the ICT infrastructure for 2006, there is no doubt that we can bring the lessons learnt from this year`s event back to SA for the next World Cup," he says.

He adds the company`s South African office is often used as an incubator for new ideas. "I am sure we will be able to benefit from the new systems that have been developed for the 2006 tournament and leverage off this to develop even better technology to serve the 2010 edition," he says.

Plan ahead

FIFA started developing and implementing plans for the ICT platform three years ago. The high-speed network had to be available 99.9% of the time, allowing FIFA staff to access the data it carried.

Some 25 cameras at each stadium transmitted images back to the International Broadcast Centre in Munich for four weeks. Deutsche Telekom provided the optic-fibre lines, while high-performance computers from T-Systems transmitted the TV images and radio reports around the globe via satellite and Deutsche Telekom`s global network, Deutsche Telekom says.

Some 480GB of data streamed through 499km of cable each second at the broadcast centre; the equivalent of 240 000 MP3 songs, he says. There were 1 500 technicians monitoring the streaming images at the broadcasting to ensure continuity.

At the T-Systems television monitoring room, the television signals from all of the games were displayed on 10 window-sized screens. At the same time, the neighbouring control room from Host Broadcast Services, the holder of the image rights, ensured television stations all over the world received the images they ordered, Deutsche Telekom says.