Joburg residents in underserviced areas are about to see the fruits of years of planning, as the company created to run the Gauteng broadband initiative, BWired, prepares to lay 900km of fibre.
Speaking to ITWeb in an exclusive interview, BWired MD Keith Kenneth explains that the company has now finished the planning stages and Johannesburg's fibre roll-out will begin before the end of the month, possibly even as soon as “this week”.
The company was created in January, initiated by Ericsson SA, which won the tender to implement Joburg's R1 billion broadband network project. The broadband initiative has taken five years to get off the ground, and many underserviced residents will be hoping the project is finished sooner than later.
The project involves the roll-out of the 900km of fibre, which is expected to take around three years to complete. However, Kenneth says BWired is hoping the building of the network will be far quicker than that.
The project has been segmented into sections and, as each section's fibre is connected, 1.2TB of local capacity will be lit up. Kenneth explains that local residents are being hired and trained to roll out the fibre, in an effort to create skills transfer.
“It makes sense to train those people in the areas where we are building the network, since they will be the ones to benefit from the broadband,” he explains.
The project has massive scope, says Kenneth, and will fill an access gap left by the incumbent operators. Part of the reason incumbents have not accessed the underserviced areas is because Joburg is an anomaly globally.
“In most cities across the world, the CBD is both the work space, and the place where the less privileged people live. The outskirts and suburbs are mostly inhabited by the wealthy. However, in Joburg it's the other way around, meaning that incumbents only access the businesses and the wealthy.”
The first areas to be lit up are Orange Farm and Soweto. The project will focus on connectivity in rural areas and the empowerment of small businesses. Each of the connected areas will also host several kiosks, and offer on-site support to users.
The initiative is entirely funded by Ericsson, except for the cost of the fibre, understood to be R200 million, which will be carried by the City of Johannesburg.
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