CT details fibre optic plan

By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent

Johannesburg, 17 May 2007

Cape Town's mooted fibre optic network will help stir competition between telecommunications vendors operating in the city and will help slash connectivity costs, says the city's telecommunications head, Leon van Wyk.

This follows the release last week by the City of Cape Town for a request for information (RFI) on its plan to lay fibre optic cable throughout the metropole. The aim is to start laying the cable in the 2007/8 financial year that begins in June, and it should be completed in time for the 2010 World Cup.

The business plan was approved by the mayor's committee a month ago and it is aimed at reducing the cost of connecting the city's various facilities, such as data centres, clinics, libraries and other services. At the same time, other service operators can rent excess capacity over the network and provide other commercial services to residents.

This is called the "open access" model and it has been endorsed by the World Bank, and a similar model is being proposed by South Africa's Department of Communication for the East African Submarine Cable System.

Van Wyk says the fibre optic business plan is modeled after a similar network installed in the Swedish capital of Stockholm that rents out capacity to commercial service providers and runs at a profit.

Stimulate activity

"It is not our aim to make a profit, but to slash costs and stimulate commercial activity. If the laying of our own fibre optic network allows that, then we must do it," he says.

The RFI is not aimed specifically at telecommunications companies as it is an infrastructure development initiative, and so companies that are involved in engineering, manufacturing of fibre optic cable and installation are eligible to tender for the RFI.

Van Wyk says a major objective of the RFI is information-gathering, so the city can properly cost what the network will cost and see if the R400 million originally proposed is still valid.

"We may go to an RFP (request for proposals) later, but we have not definitely made up our minds on this," he says.

Van Wyk says the design of the network is an important consideration, especially the linking of aggregation points (also known as exchanges), where users can break out of or into the network.

He says while the city will be looking at linking its own centres as a first priority, it will make dark (unlit) fibre optic cable available to properly licensed service providers.

The closing date for the RFI is 5 June.