Bandwidth trips up 2010

By Christelle du Toit, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 24 Jul 2008

Fifa has been caught off-side by the high cost of broadband in SA.

The world soccer governing body and its technology partner, MATCH, had not anticipated the extraordinarily high cost of bandwidth in this country when awarding the 2010 Soccer World Cup to SA, reveals Dick Wiles, the CEO of MATCH.

As a result, MATCH has been forced to re-evaluate and "dumb down" its technology solutions in order to stay within budget, Wiles told ITWeb yesterday during an exclusive interview.

"To be honest, it [the cost of bandwidth in SA] is not something we were first aware of," he says.

He explains the technology spend for the coming World Cup will be similar to the 2006 World Cup - a figure he is not willing to disclose because of commercial agreements - but, due to high infrastructure and bandwidth costs, Fifa and MATCH have been forced to be "a bit more creative" to stay within budget.

Some commentators say SA's bandwidth is up to 10 times more expensive than in Asia and the Philippines.

One way that MATCH is getting around the bandwidth issue, is to use dumbed-down solutions. "In 2006, we used VOIP (voice-over-IP) for telephony," says Wiles, explaining that MATCH will have to revert to traditional telephony solutions in SA.

Wiles says fixed-line infrastructure is, therefore, still important for the World Cup, especially for broadcasters, who also need high-capacity international bandwidth.

He says that currently SA's fixed-line infrastructure "does not meet the requirements", but Telkom and Sentech have been meeting all set targets, and MATCH and Fifa will be meeting with them regularly to ensure they keep it up as the 2010 event nears.

Mobile options

However, MATCH says SA's high mobile penetration will work in its favour. Wiles says Fifa will leverage off its close relationship with MTN to use mobile as a major platform for voice and data communications, especially in high-density locations.

In 2006, MTN became the first African global sponsor of the 2010 World Cup, standing in for $655 million over the course of four years.

The sponsorship allows it exclusive mobile content rights for Africa and the Middle East, as well as global marketing rights.

Undersea uncertainty

In the meantime, international bandwidth is a less certain matter, as MATCH is not sure when which proposed undersea cables will be ready.

According to Wiles, different reports about the readiness of various undersea cables by 2010 are coming through almost daily.

At the moment, SA has two undersea cables, namely SAT3 and SAFE, with a capacity of 300Gbps and 130Gbps, respectively*. Cables that are expected to be finished by 2010 include EASSY (640Gbps) and SEACOM (1.2Tbps).

He says, to a large extent, the amount of capacity Fifa has to supply will depend on what broadcasters require, as many will bring in their own solutions, "but we have to make sure the capacity is there".

Fifa requires a 20GB pipe to feed data between the various stadiums and the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) in Johannesburg alone, which Telkom is to provide, and Sentech is to back-up.

In 2006, during the World Cup in Germany, Fifa was estimated to have 250 000 users using its 10 000 network devices, through 40 000 network connections. It reportedly had 10 000 communications and network devices, 8 000 temporary network ports, 8 000km of temporary cabling, 45 application servers, 25 communication servers, 20 software applications, and 20 terabytes of converged voice and data traffic.

*Figures according to the Department of Communications (DOC).