Altron subsidiary Altech Alcom Matomo has won a five-year deal to implement the much-awaited Gauteng Broadband Network (GBN), the province says in a statement.
Last January, the provincial government initiated a tender invitation for the conceptualisation, construction and maintenance of a broadband network that would incorporate 1 600km of high-speed fibre optics. The value of the deal, according to Altech, is R1.2 billion.
Gauteng's project, previously G-Link and before that the Blue Umbrella project, has been on the cards since around 2008, but stalled over recent years. It aims to provide network coverage to 95% of Gauteng's population.
MEC Mandla Nkomfe said in the statement that "the importance of the GBN is to connect our people, and thus ensure they are able to access Internet effortlessly".
Altech and Altron Telecommunications, Multimedia and Information Technology (TMT) CEO Craig Venter says the deal is an important milestone for the TMT group, under which Altech Alcom Matomo falls.
According to the 2011 census report, only 35.2% of Gauteng residents access the Internet. "Evidently, this situation is untenable and cannot be allowed to continue unchecked, especially because we live in the information age," says Nkomfe.
After Altech Alcom Matomo has built and operated the network for five years, it will be transferred to the provincial government, which will own the network, says Nkomfe.
More to come
The concept emanated from a comprehensive ICT strategy which was formulated by the province as an overarching baseline for all ICT projects. The network will be at the core of the strategy, which aims to create a "smart" province," says Gauteng.
Other ancillary projects such as e-learning will also be assimilated into the GBN's network in the future.
The design will include a next-generation network and a core network that provides MPLS/VPN converged network services. Some 45 Thusong centres, 20 townships, six urban renewal nodes and nine economic zones will have to be hooked up with a minimum access speed of 1Gbps.
In addition, according to the initial tender, Altech Alcom Matomo will have to implement infrastructure to support interconnect agreements to other licensed and international provider networks, which will support voice and data requirements for 130 000 provincial employees and users at 316 locations.
The core network will consist of an initial eight core locations, no greater than 80km from the next core location, which will be connected by a 10GB "protection ring". The provincial buildings will be connected by 1GB protection rings to each other and through dual 1GB connections to one of the core locations. Each core node will host 10 rings made up of 10 buildings in a ring.
According to the tender, the core network will allow the provision of Internet, virtual private networks as well as IP-based telephone services. The operator will provide customer service responsibilities on the wholesale services provided across the network.
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