Broadband project loses head

Johannesburg, 22 Oct 2007

City of Joburg is advertising to replace Joburg Broadband Network Project (JBNP) project manager Douglas Cohen.

Cohen says he resigned at the end of September and will join consulting company Accenture in November. "I`ll be staying in the project management and IT field."

As to why he left the city after three years, he says: "I was basically fighting the machine, I got really tired. I was not getting the support I needed and it was affecting my personal life.

"I`m sad to go, but keen to see the other side of the fence too," he adds. "I would like to see the project go further. There are capable people there, so who knows. It was not an easy decision."

Monique Griffiths, director of sector support at the City of Joburg, Department of Economic Development, confirms the city has posted a listing in various print media to advertise for a replacement.

She declines to comment on the progress of the network project, saying communication procedures need to be followed.

Project history

The JBNP is estimated to be worth about R500 million. The city owns infrastructure to provide a telecommunications platform, as well as a private telecoms network licence.

It is trying to aggregate its infrastructure, which is held by entities such as City Power and the Johannesburg Roads Agency. This includes fibre, copper and electricity grids.

In October, Cohen said short-listed bidders Altech, Dimension Data, Ericsson, Goal Technology Solutions, MTN, MWeb/Tellumat, Neology, Telkom, Transtel, Sentech and Vodacom, were to begin deployment of demonstration networks.

He added that the city was to meet with the listed organisations to discuss the demonstration process and issue terms of reference. However, he did not indicate when this would happen.

Cohen said companies that are successful in the network demonstration process would be asked to respond to a request for proposal (RFP). Following that, the city is expected to select its private partner(s) for the broadband network project.

The final RFP is planned for early 2008.