Joburg broadband network is close: mayor
City of Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau say that digital access is becoming as much an equity issue as access to water and electricity.
Tau delivered his state of the city address on Wednesday (6 May), calling the city’s broadband network “a public asset”.
“It allows us to reindustrialize in a way that builds Joburg as a city able to compete and lead in both the old industries that are rapidly digitizing and in the new weightless economy of digital services,” Tau said.
In February, the City of Johannesburg said it would take over the control of the Johannesburg Broadband Network (JBN) after the council approved the creation of a municipal-owned entity (MOE) to run it.
The municipality appointed Ericsson SA to build a 900km optic fibre network in 2010, which it later ceded it to CitiConnect Communications. having not gone live despite its original go-live date of July 2013.
IT specialist Rabelani Dagada, who is the DA spokesperson on Joburg Broadband Network Project, said that on 29th January 2015, the City Council of Johannesburg approved that the City should pay R1.1 billion as part of settling the termination of the contract with Ericsson.
Zolani Matebese, the city’s head of broadband, said at the time that once all the outstanding issues surrounding the cancellation had been resolved, the JBN would become “an absolute game changer” for both the City and its residents.
Matebese said after the conclusion of the termination and transition arrangements, the City would obtain full control of BWired, the operating entity created to implement the project.
According to the prescripts of the Municipal Finance Management Act, BWired would become an MOE.
On Wednesday, Tau said: “In line with the Council resolution, I am pleased to report that we are on the verge of concluding a settlement agreement that will unlock this asset.”
The mayor also provided an update on the city’s Wi-Fi plans. By February, City of Johannesburg had rolled out 54 Wi-Fi hotspots – all of them on the Rea Vaya T1 and T2 routes and 20 are mobile hotspots (buses).
“We are in the process of blanketing Braamfontein with Wi-Fi that provides high-speed broadband access, parts of which are live right now,” Tau said.
“This goes beyond hotspot access at specific buildings and demonstrates how public Wi-Fi can work across a wide area. In this mecca of youthful activity, the Wi-Fi mesh will become a showcase for how subsidised access to Internet means access to opportunity and education,” the mayor said.
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