GijimaAst to invest in VPN

Johannesburg, 30 Aug 2007

JSE-listed IT company GijimaAst plans to establish its own virtual private network (VPN).

Speaking yesterday, CEO Jonas Bogoshi told analysts it made sense for the company to capitalise on the communications services already being delivered to customers.

However, analysts noted Business Connexion's R24 million operating loss from its communications division and questioned this move.

"We are already providing communication services to 2 000-plus customers. However, we are only acting as a reseller. If we set up our own VPN, we can capitalise on this captive market and the increasing interest in unified communications," replied Bogoshi.

GijimaAst is still in the early stages of formulating its VPN plan, so it is too early to project the capital expenditure needed to implement the network. Business Connexion originally budgeted R85 million for its next-generation network.

"We are still figuring out how we want to do this. On our side is the fact that we have the technical expertise, we just need to go to the market with our requirements once we establish exactly what these are," he concluded.