Following the completion of the rollout of its next-generation network in June last year, the eThekwini municipality has started selling excess capacity to local Internet service providers at wholesale rates.
Jacquie Subban, eThekwini head of geographic information and policy, says the municipality appointed Dimension Data to manage and maintain its network for the next three years. The company will also handle all commercial dealings in terms of signing up customers, although Subban says the legality will be with the city. “All final decisions and contracts will be with the municipality.”
The city is currently signing up ISPs interested in taking advantage of its excess capacity at cost-recovery rates. Says Dimension Data KwaZulu-Natal executive director Jay Reddy: “The interest from service providers and customers has been phenomenal. We've been getting an average of 10 queries per day. Five service providers have indicated they want to buy the service; four have confirmed (Airband Systems, MWeb, IS, SAI) and one is unconfirmed. The agreements to be signed are in progress and the service providers are building their products. We expect to have 150Mb sold by February. The service providers will be using fibre to get to their customers.”
Smooth operator
eThekwini has spent the last few months since launch setting up pricing, billing systems and lodging pricing with Icasa, says Subban. “It's going well. There have been a ton of queries from different people. We've been directing them to Dimension Data, which has been investigating the feasibility. There are some very solid customers coming on board this year [in 2008 at the time of writing]. The target for 2008 was low as we needed to set up the admin side and so on, but if the serious contenders come on board, we'll have exceeded that target.”
Subban says the municipality has connected the SmartXchange (a not-for-profit ICT cluster) to its network as promised.
“We're now having discussions with educational institutions in terms of connecting universities and schools. This is great because it's at the heart of what this initiative is about,” she says.
The municipality has also been piloting wireless connectivity for last mile access. The plan is that as ISPs come on board, schools and citizens in the vicinity of the ISP may access the network via that distribution point.
“The pilot will provide us with all the information we need to decide if wireless is a viable last mile access technology. If it is successful, we'll go to tender for a provider to roll out. The pilot will also help us with 2010 planning,” Subban notes.
Thinking smart
eThekwini set out a strategy in 2005/6 to make the City of Durban a smart city. As part of this, it embarked on an initiative to look at expanding its network and examine ways and means of developing it into more than connectivity for city offices.
[Education] is at the heart of what this initiative is about.
Jacquie Subban, head of geographic information and policy, eThekwini
The fibre network will ultimately span the entire municipal area, Subban says. At present, there is fibre stretching out to Umhlanga, Tongaat, Waterfall, Amanzimtoti, KwaMashu, Chatsworth and Umlazi, as well as the southern industrial core.
In a press statement announcing its plans to introduce the Metro Connect service, eThekwini said it would be “the first municipality in South Africa to reach this milestone [of] providing citizens with affordable connectivity and low-cost local phone calls. This means that, at a massively reduced fee compared to Telkom, all companies in the hub will have access to the network - Internet and e-mail - and make virtually free calls to other phones linked in the network.”
Its intention to “span all businesses and residents in the greater municipal area by providing a cost saving at vastly improved speeds” seems to have reached fruition.
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