SA speeds up on 2010 bandwidth

Belinda Anderson - Finweek

Johannesburg - Although it doesn't yet know how much international bandwidth capacity the country will need for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the Department of Communications (DoC) insists there should be sufficient capacity.

Speaking at a Wits Business School Link Centre Forum in Parktown, the DoC's Botlenyana Mokhele said it would only know towards the end of 2008, after the registration for broadcasters wishing to broadcast the event had closed.

Mokhele said the DoC believed the World Cup would serve as a catalyst for providing the country with affordable ICT infrastructure.

After the SA government broke away from EASSy (the East African Submarine Cable System project), it and other governments formed the Nepad Broadband Initiative. Mokhele says it is in the early stages of this process, she is confident that this cable should be ready before the event.

In addition to capacity that may or may not come from the Nepad Broadband Initiative, Infraco is also planning to lay two cables, and private-equity funded Seacom has said it aims to be operational with its east coast cable by early 2009.

Aside from some questions that can't yet be answered - like how much international bandwidth capacity will be required? - the various bodies involved in ensuring the country's 2010 ICT readiness painted a picture of a well co-ordinated and thought-out effort that's under way to ensure the country can cope with the needs of the event from a technology and telecommunications perspective.

Visitors would want it to work like Germany

World Wide Worx CEO Arthur Goldstuck cautioned that the country should not neglect making the visitor experience a hassle free use of technology, by focusing all the attention on ensuring the country meets the broadcasting and other technical requirements.

Goldstuck said visitors would simply want it to work like Germany 2006.

Goldstuck said all 300 000 or more visitors would want to use their mobile phones, be able to make smart card payments, and use electronic tokens to, for example, gain entry into stadiums.

He said, visitors should be able to use their mobile phones to get live traffic information, maps to stadiums and other venues, directions to the nearest parking area, entertainment information and be able to download live clips of key moments immediately after they had taken place, among other things.

Goldstuck says the South African telecoms landscape had already improved significantly over the last three years with the availability of wireless broadband. The country also had a far more enabling legislative framework in the form of the Electronic Communications Act (ECA).

But, he said there was a disconnect between the law and the regulatory environment, because regulator Icasa did not have the capacity to implement the policy framework that it was tasked with implementing.

But, Icasa councillor Tracy Cohen said Icasa had the capacity to implement the necessary regulations to fully breathe life into the ECA. She acknowledged that regulatory processes tended to take time to implement.

- Fin24