Another milestone has been reached in the Southern African Development Community Regional Information Initiative (SRII) following the signing of an agreement between Telkom and Zimbabwe Posts and Telecommunications Company (ZPTC) to upgrade the transmission link between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The R60 million project will see the current analogue link between Messina and Gweru upgraded to a digital link to facilitate ever-increasing volumes of communications traffic between the two countries. The link within South Africa up to Messina is already digital, as is the link within Zimbabwe from Gweru to Harare and Bulawayo. The trans-national system is expected to be operational by July this year.
Zimbabwe is Telkom`s second-largest connectivity partner for outgoing traffic in the world, with an estimated 40% of South Africa`s trade on the African continent currently taking place with Zimbabwe.
The project follows closely on the heels of a deal clinched between Telkom and its Lesotho and Swaziland counterparts last year that will result in the digitisation of the transmission networks in both these countries.
Telkom is one of the key drivers of the SRII project which aims to upgrade and expand the existing terrestrial telecommunications network and establish a regional network with advanced technology capable of linking all countries in the SADC.
Estimated to cost a total of US $180 million, the SRII project is being conducted in three two-year phases. The short-term entails upgrading existing analogue facilities to digital Synchronous Digital Hierachy (SDH) technology.
In the medium term, existing digital Pseudo-synchronous Digital Hierachy (PDH) links will be upgraded to the more advanced SDH system. The final phase entails expanding network capacity and building SDH rings to help re-route traffic in instances of network failure.
The plan is to complete the project by 2005, while the entire phase one roll-out should be finalised by the end of this year. Nine of the 25 projects on the priority list, which have been identified and planned on a bilateral and multi-national basis, are already at an advanced stage of implementation.
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