Praise for 2010 ICT progress

Fifa is pleased with the progress the Local Organising Committee (LOC) has made in preparation for the 2010 World Cup, but says some challenges still remain.

This follows a six-city tour of host cities by a 50-member Fifa delegation over the past week. The team, which consisted of experts in IT, broadcasting, risk management and safety and security, among others, said they were happy with the progress which has been made since the Confederations Cup earlier this year.

While Telkom's readiness for its IT and broadcasting requirements were commended, Fifa noted other IT areas still need to be addressed. Despite this, LOC CEO Danny Jordaan said he was satisfied with the progress made and said all requirements would be met in time for the soccer tournament.

“We can be happy as SA that we are in a good place now. We are not ready for the matches at this stage, [but] we should be ready in time, and there is a lot of work to be done. In comparison to our own timelines, as to where we should be, we are comfortable we have done very well,” says Jordaan.

The next step will be to place the temporary overlay infrastructure, such as the stadium media centres, hospitality areas, accreditation centres and signage, he adds. The broadcast centre will also be catered for on the network.

Jordaan notes the Confederations Cup highlighted improvement that had already been achieved in infrastructure, including improvements to transport, Telkom readiness, IT and broadcasting. It also showed which areas need further improvements. The Confederations Cup was held earlier this year and served as a dry run for the 2010 World Cup.

Fifa noted the improvements pending for 2010 include access to the stadiums and public transport. Telecommunications for transport systems still need to be addressed with the Department of Transport, allowing for the “alignment of air, land and rail transport into one central national coordinating structure”, the LOC said.

Ticketing is still a concern. The LOC reported that the deadline for the delivery of electronic access control systems by host cities during the Confederations Cup was missed by all venues. No testing of the systems was done and now cities have to rush to ensure the systems are installed and fully tested before the 2010 World Cup.

The overall IT solution will include international audio and video connections with reliable backup connections from the international broadcasting centre (IBC) to international networks; and solutions incorporating a fully-redundant environment that provides a seamless network with 99.99% availability.

Dual-route, secured, high-speed, high-availability link circuits between each one of the proposed stadiums and the IBC and fixed-line and wireless Internet connectivity and mobile telephony for media operations are also included in the list of required IT solutions.

Infrastructure plans include the implementation and support of approximately 40 000 voice and data network ports, and support for approximately 10 000 communication and network devices, 4 500 notebook PCs and 4 000 mobile telephony devices.