DOC mulls 112 bids

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 04 Sep 2008

The Department of Communications (DOC) still has to start the evaluation of proposals from industry regarding the construction and running of two Public Emergency Contact Centres (PECC) as private-public partnerships.

The department previously said it wanted the centres operational by the last quarter of next year.

The evaluation was meant to have started last month, but an official says the department is waiting for director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole to "sign-off on the evaluation committee, before we can start the evaluation and selection process".

The PECCs will make it possible for the public to reach any emergency service by dialling 112 toll-free from any telephone handset, mobile or fixed-line.

SA's cellular providers already use the number for their emergency contact centres. The DOC has been tinkering with the concept since 2002 and established a pilot contact centre at the Strand, near Somerset West, in 2004. That centre handles ambulance calls for the Cape metropole.

The DOC was mandated by Section 76 of the Electronic Communications Act, on the books since 2005, to set up the centres. The same section authorises the Independent Communications Authority of SA to issue regulations on aspects related to the centres, which it now has.

Among the companies believed to be bidding for the PECC deal are Saab Grintek, Satyam Computer Services and Continuity SA. Saab Grintek is keen to propose a solution based on the technology its mother company delivered to the Swedish Rescue Services Agency. The solution would include training and assistance from the Nordic agency.

Satyam Computer Services has proposed a non-profit private-public partnership model, based on the Emergency Management and Research Institute, in Hyderabad, in India's populous Andra Pradesh province.

ContinuitySA is host to Gauteng's Provincial Disaster Management Centre and the Gauteng Health Department's Emergency Medical Control Centre that dispatches and controls the region's ambulances. The two centres, opened by premier Mbhazima Shilowa, in November, cost the province R50 million.

It is believed that Altech is absent from the bidding list. Altech last year built the Gauteng police a state-of-the-art R600 million contact and radio control (CRC) centre, in Midrand, fitted with the Terrestrial Trunked Radio (Tetra) system. Safety and security minister Charles Nqakula last year said every province will eventually have a Tetra-based CRC centre.

Meanwhile, the police are also selecting a vendor for the second such centre, scheduled for the Eastern Cape.