Wireless service provider Amobia has completed the first ring, of what it calls a "military spec" wireless network, in Johannesburg, to meet client demand for last mile services.
Johan Botha, a director of the Cape-based company, says the ring covers the following areas: Soweto, Northcliff, Randburg, Sandton, Gallo Manor, Midrand, Edenvale, Bedfordview, Linksfield, Johannesburg CBD, Kensington, Rivonia, Riveria, Norwood, Randburg Waterfront and Bryanston. More coverage will be created based on demand from clients.
Botha describes the network as being built to "military specification" standards, because it has three days' battery backup and has extensive built-in redundancy.
This redundancy includes rings connecting the high-sites in a way that avoids single points of failure. A dynamic route distribution protocol is used to rapidly reroute traffic in the event of a link failure.
Each high-site is connected with two links and two independent backbone routers. All sites have remote power management devices.
Botha says Amobia has a three-tier network design. A physical layer using cost-effective wireless technologies, an underlying private IP network for dynamic routing and network management, and a VPN layer for customer traffic.
He agrees that his company is essentially building infrastructure, although it only has a value-added network service licence and so strictly speaking it cannot self-provide.
"But our lawyers and our clients have expressed the opinion that what we are doing is legal. We have also only used equipment that is type approved by ICASA and 5.8GHz ISM frequency as approved by ICASA," he says.
Amobia is party to the Wireless Application Providers Association's legal application against the regulator, ICASA, to clarify whether VANS are allowed to self-provide.
Botha says ultimately Amobia would like to have an electronic network services licence, as this would stimulate investment in the company to expand its offering.
Share
