Reunert electronics company Reunert Communication Systems (RCS) has secured a contract worth an estimated R180 million to install and maintain a national communications infrastructure for Circle Information Technologies (CIT) over the next five years. The order value for the first year is R23 million and will ensure that the backbone for the network can be deployed to provide national coverage.
Fully deployed, the network would be able to cater for 7,8 million users. RCS will take full responsibility for the network functionality, coverage, rollout and maintenance to establish a national network for CIT subsidiary ComNet.
ComNet will soon sell airtime in bulk to various service providers on one of the most advanced data networks in the world. This state-of-the-art network will be linked to the South African Atomic Energy Corporation`s R30-million data centre at Pelindaba. CIT has secured a 30-year exclusive lease with the Corporation for this facility.
"Data communication has seen a steady growth over the past few years. CIT will make use of various forms of wireless communication techniques and will be able to monitor, control or evaluate any piece of stationary or mobile electronic equipment whether it is in an industrial area or a farm in the Karoo," says CIT Technical Director Jakkie Pieterse.
"We chose RCS as our contractor because they are leaders in electronic system integration and logistics support and best suited to do this job."
Current methods of communication in South Africa all provide certain advantages, but also have inherent limitations. CIT believes it has overcome these inherent problems by ensuring national coverage, high availability, high user capacity, low cost (both rollout capex and data transmission) and a multi-functional bi-directional network.
Airtime will be sold for low cost data transmission in the form of two-way paging, remote water and electricity metering, ATM banking, mobile communications, building management, process control and telemetry. Another application will be emergency communications to municipalities, security companies and fleet and vehicle management.
The ComNet network technology is appropriate for implementation in all countries, but the current South African technology would be particularly suitable to developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, South America and Asia.
Share