Gijima, Nokia secure prestigious SKAO business opportunity

Issued by Gijima

Johannesburg, 10 Feb 2025

From left: Don Andrews (SKAO), Jeremy Main (SKAO), Peter Lewis (SKAO), Gian Augostino (Nokia), Louis Kirstein (Gijima), Toni Pellegrino (Nokia), Patrizia Ciarrocchi (Nokia), Richard Oberland (SKAO), Porchia Muller (Nokia), Bart Vrancken (Nokia), Leisel Ramjoo (Nokia), Henry Stemmett (Gijima), Themba Sibambo (Gijima), Tristan Krige (Gijima), Luigi Re (Nokia), Jacobus Bezuidenhout (Gijima).

Gijima, which positions itself as a leading ICT firm in South Africa, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Nokia, after being awarded a business opportunity by the SKA Observatory (SKAO) for the provision of a comprehensive long-haul transmission network. This significant achievement underscores Gijima and Nokia's commitment to delivering cutting-edge technology solutions and exceptional service.

The SKAO, headquartered in the United Kingdom, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the construction and operation of the world's largest radio telescope arrays, currently being built in South Africa and Australia. The SKAO will provide unprecedented insights into the universe, enabling groundbreaking discoveries in astronomy.

The awarded contract involves the procurement and deployment of an end-to-end optical transmission system, designed to light over 1 000km in total, including a pre-existing dark fibre pair running from the Karoo to Cape Town. Leveraging Nokia’s state-of-the-art 1830 Photonic Service Interconnect (PSI) solution, this optical transmission network will carry critical science data from the SKAO’s mid-frequency telescope (known as SKA Mid) in the Karoo to the processing facilities in Cape Town, as well as Non-Science Data Network (NSDN) services across the wide area network of the telescope.

Henry Stemmett, Group Sales Director at Gijima, said: "We are thrilled to have been selected by SKAO for this critical project. Our partnership with Nokia ensures that we can deliver a solution that not only meets but exceeds the expectations of SKAO. This win is a testament to our dedication to innovation, quality and customer satisfaction and fits in perfectly with Gijima’s 2.0 strategy.

Key highlights of the Gijima-Nokia partnership:

Proven expertise and technology: Gijima and Nokia bring a wealth of experience and technological prowess to the project, ensuring seamless integration and superior performance.
High capacity transmission: The network will initially support a transmission capacity of 6.8Tbit/s, scalable to approximately 20Tbit/s to meet future demands.
Comprehensive solution: The partnership will deliver a full turnkey operational system, including supply, build, configuration, unit testing and end-to-end testing, up to handover.
Operational support: Gijima will provide ongoing operational support services to light a pre-existing dark fibre from the Karoo to Cape Town.
Innovative approach: Emphasising an "as a service" mindset, the solution focuses on continuous improvement, transparency and proactive support.
Strategic collaboration: Gijima and Nokia will leverage their combined expertise to deliver a robust and reliable optical transmission network, ensuring seamless data flow and operational efficiency for the SKAO.
Technical specifications:
Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM): The project includes the provision of DWDM coherent muxponder and optical line equipment.
Network management system (NMS): The optical transmission network will be managed by an electronic NMS provided by Gijima, which integrates with SKAO’s telescope manager and additional third-party systems.
Optical transmission design: The design will support very high bandwidths, with the capability to upscale to the array configuration of 197 dish receptors, handling approximately 20Tbit/s of traffic.

Toni Pellegrino, Head of South and East Africa for Network Infrastructure at Nokia, expressed: "The award is a testament to Nokia's leadership in optical networking technology and real investment in building long-lasting local partnerships. We are excited to grow with Gijima and contribute to the success of the SKAO, enabling new discoveries in astronomy."

The project is set to commence immediately, with the initial phase expected to be completed by June 2025. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in the journey towards unlocking the mysteries of the universe and advancing human knowledge.

Gijima

Gijima is a locally-owned, world-class ICT company with a robust network of international OEM partners, delivering comprehensive ICT solutions across various industries in South Africa, Africa, and globally. Our expertise enable us to adapt solutions to meet the unique needs of specific industries. Our technical excellence, extensive reach, and ability to innovate set us apart from the competition.

Gijima strives to be a seamless extension of its customers’ business, enabling them to empower their staff through strategic ICT investments.

https://www.gijima.com

Nokia

At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together.

As a B2B technology innovation leader, we are pioneering networks that sense, think and act by leveraging our work across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. In addition, we create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs.

With truly open architectures that seamlessly integrate into any ecosystem, our high-performance networks create new opportunities for monetization and scale. Service providers, enterprises and partners worldwide trust Nokia to deliver secure, reliable and sustainable networks today – and work with us to create the digital services and applications of the future.

SKAO

The SKAO, formally known as the SKA Observatory, is an intergovernmental organisation composed of Member States from five continents and headquartered in the UK. Its mission is to build and operate cutting-edge radio telescopes to transform our understanding of the Universe, and deliver benefits to society through global collaboration and innovation. Its two telescopes, each composed of hundreds of dishes and thousands of antennas, will be constructed in South Africa and Australia and be the two most advanced radio telescopes on Earth. A later expansion is envisioned in both countries and other African partner countries.

Together with other state-of-the-art research facilities, the SKAO’s telescopes will explore the unknown frontiers of science and deepen our understanding of key processes, including the formation and evolution of galaxies, fundamental physics in extreme environments and the origins of life. Through the development of innovative technologies and its contribution to addressing societal challenges, the SKAO will play its part to address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and deliver significant benefits across its membership and beyond.

The SKAO recognises and acknowledges the Indigenous peoples and cultures that have traditionally lived on the lands on which the SKAO facilities are located. In Australia, the SKAO acknowledges the Wajarri Yamaji as the Traditional Owners and native title holders of Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory.

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