Broadband Infraco (BBI) has announced a public-to-public partnership with the Limpopo government to facilitate the rapid deployment of the Limpopo Broadband Network.
According to a statement released by BBI today, the Limpopo Economic Development Agency (LEDA) will endeavour to use BBI's national long-distance backhaul points of presence (POPs) to meet its provincial connectivity requirements.
The partnership spans several elements, including the establishment of high-capacity POP sites; identification of sites and site layout; construction of national long-distance POP sites in accordance with governance frameworks; and the provision of affordable international connectivity, as required by LEDA for the Limpopo Broadband Network. Where possible, the services of local suppliers and other SMEs will be utilised in the rollout of the network.
BBI CEO Puleng Kwele said it is part of BBI's mandate to work proactively with private and public stakeholders on provincial telecommunications infrastructure partnerships. "We are very excited to work with the Limpopo province, renowned for its pioneering work in rolling out its information society and knowledge economy development roadmap."
Kwele also elaborated on BBI's investment in a project aimed at upgrading its telecommunications infrastructure in Limpopo and Mpumalanga. The initiative, called the Northern Ring Capacity Upgrade project, will involve the deployment of new state-of-the-art 40Gbps network technology in the Northern Ring for transmission of telecommunications services over fibre-optic cables.
"The network architecture has been designed to be resilient, hence the new 40Gbps link will run parallel to the existing 10Gbps link and will be scalable in multiples of 40Gbps to address current and future capacity requirements," said Kwele.
The Northern Ring extends from Gauteng to Polokwane, via Soekmekaar and Tzaneen, towards Hoedspruit, and on to Nelspruit. The ring then closes on the last leg from Nelspruit via Ngodwana, Belfast and Witbank, back to Pretoria. A spur link from Polokwane to BBI's international gateway to Zimbabwe, in Beitbridge, is also part of the project.
The present total capacity in the Northern Ring is 160Gbps, about a third of the 677Gbps on the Golden Triangle. Once completed, the Northern Ring will rival the Golden Triangle as the nerve centre of major transmission connectivity in SA, at 480Gbps.
Kwele confirmed that procurement processes for the project have been completed and a contract has been awarded for the supply and installation of the equipment. The project is now in the implementation stage, of which the first phase of upgrading the spur link to Beitbridge is expected to be completed by June. The second phase, which entails the upgrading of the rest of the sites, is expected to be completed at the end of August.
R700m upgrade
Earlier this week, minister of public enterprises Malusi Gigaba announced that BBI plans to spend more than R700 million to upgrade technology and improve network performance and reach during this financial year.
According to BBI spokesperson Sammy Mafu, the funds will be expended on various capital programmes, including the Northern Ring and the Enabling Government Connectivity project. "Enabling Government Connectivity is a project intended to improve network accessibility to South Africans and will include an additional 29 access points in KwaZulu-Natal," said Mafu.
Mafu adds that funds will be spent on the Network Renewal Programme, which is aimed at upgrading the BBI network to improve its overall quality of service, remove points of vulnerability, and evolve it into an Internet protocol platform. "Additional details will be given at a later stage."
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