Broadband Initiative in JHB

rpm

rpm

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"We are inviting you, or a delegated representative from the MyADSL Forum, to a discussion regarding City of Joburg’s Economic Development Unit’s Wireless and Broadband initiatives.

Time: Wednesday the 22nd June from 8.00- 11.00 a.m.
Venue: BMI-T offices, Fourways

The objective of the meeting to be held is to provide a forum for the “brainstorming” of practical ideas for the City to consider regarding the development of a Joburg Broadband Strategy to improve access and reduce the cost of communications for its constituents. This meeting will also consider the creation of a Wireless and Broadband Working Group/ Forum to assist the City in this regard.

BMI-T is assisting the City of Joburg's in its ICT Sector Support Programme and the development of a broadband enabled “Smart City” is one of the key initiatives of the City's 2030 vision. . (See www.joburg.org.za for more information). Over 600 cities globally have announced broadband initiatives reflecting the deep appreciation by them of the role that broadband now plays in the economic health of a city

The objective of this project is to explore all the options available to the City insofar the advancing of broadband and in particular wireless broadband within the City. The project is aimed at supporting the ICT sector (and other users of broadband) to become more competitive. Options need to be developed for the City of Johannesburg to play a role as an intermediary, and/or to play a role as a provider of infrastructure, and/or a role as a provider of resources to advance city wide broadband deployment. The City envisages ultimately the creation of a City Broadband “Working Group” in the form of a Public/Private Partnership (PPP) which will be tasked in developing these ideas further.

We would also like set up a suitable time to interview you on a number of key issues surrounding this project prior to this meeting if possible as well.

Your input and assistance in this regard will be highly appreciated and we look forward to your input.

Best regards

Tertia Smit
Project Manager."
 
A great opportunity which you should certainly take advantage of, RPM. Even though you may only influence the final outcome to an infinitismally small nth degree in the end, any such opportunity in the face of the dictatorial approaches of public officials, must be seen as very welcome.

Concerning the issue of provision itself, my opinion is that any local government authority must firstly look at its sister organisations to maximise outcomes for mutual benefit - this implies that Joburg must not go it alone, but instead adopt a cooperative stance with Midrand, Centurion, Pretoria, Ekhuruleni, Mogale City, and so on. It should even be taken a step further, with project linkages established with provincial initiatives, e.g. Blue IQ. This prevents re-inventing the wheel unnecessarily, and may result in eventual faster rollout and competitive advantage. Over to you...
 
Wouldn't it be good for JAWUG to be involved as well?....Daffy, RoDent?

edit: Also congratulations rpm, it seems that myADSL is now recognised as the voice of Broadband in SA :)
 
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...development of a broadband enabled “Smart City” is one of the key initiatives of the City's 2030 vision...
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Oooo koek, I certainly hope they don't aim to implement this in 2030 - clearly they need help from MyADSL, and what infrastructure will they use - it would be monopoly controlled by the DoC's failure to allow self-provisioning...but I'm sure the City of Joburg could give her Poisonous Ivyness a discount on her water bill [if she lives in/around Jhb] & a licence will be granted to put in their own fibre & SAT4 cable...by the time the City of Jhb gets this done we will have levitating anti-gravity anti-matter powered satelites that hover above cities instead of orbiting the Earth...
 
ic said:
Oooo koek, I certainly hope they don't aim to implement this in 2030 - clearly they need help from MyADSL, and what infrastructure will they use - it would be monopoly controlled by the DoC's failure to allow self-provisioning...but I'm sure the City of Joburg could give her Poisonous Ivyness a discount on her water bill [if she lives in/around Jhb] & a licence will be granted to put in their own fibre & SAT4 cable...by the time the City of Jhb gets this done we will have levitating anti-gravity anti-matter powered satelites that hover above cities instead of orbiting the Earth...
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LOL ic - don't kick opportunity up the backside yet! Ivy has a home in Pretoria - see the method in my cooperative madness now? There's also the homes of lots of politico types scattered throughout...
 
mbs said:
LOL ic - don't kick opportunity up the backside yet! Ivy has a home in Pretoria - see the method in my cooperative madness now? There's also the homes of lots of politico types scattered throughout...
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:D I think it's great though that the City of Joburg wants to turn Joeez into a "smart [broadbandified] city" [I did hear about this a while back], and great that they want MyADSL's input - they really need to understand the issues that will stand in their way :).

Perhaps the City of Joburg could give her Ivyness a free council flat - even allow her to rent it out, then Ivy might consider paving the way ITO licensing etc...:D

It would be nice if this inadvertantly legalised WiFi arcoss public boundaries, but WiMax is probably more likely, and there is the small issue that the City of Joburg will be looking at this as a commercial venture rather than a break-even community service, but it would still be beneficial & still add one more competitor to the broadband landscape :D.
 
2030 sounds pretty accurate at the pace of South-african Services ;)
 
I admire the vision - I really hope it comes to pass - initiatives like this are definately a step in the right direction.

2030 is a mere 25 years away - that is a very short space of time as anyone over 25 will know ! ;)

It's definately possible so long as government can curb corruption, BEE gains proper direction and reverse racism doesn't get out of control.

Keeping on topic, I think it's a great opportunity for MyADSL ! - look forward to hearing how it all pans out.
 
While I do support any efforts I do have my scepticism...

Who the hell is going to provide the international bandwidth.... no prizes for guessing TELKOM

Who stands to get richer out of this?
Steven White and his good friends at TELKOM

Break the monopoly FIRST, then, tackle projects such as these
 
Nope, I'd be pushing for 2007/8, I'm not interested in 2030 or even 2020 [not the bank - the year] - broadband is something that's needed now in order to grow the country and specifically help revitalise Jhb ahead of 2010...
 
MansoN said:
ic, I think you missed something..
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Nooit, I did miss that - good1 Luke :D.

Taking the analogy a step further, there is clearly something screw-eyed/wiffy with her Poisonous Ivyness' vision bcos her telecoms liberalisation plan is supposed to take another 10 years - that gives her 2015 vision - whatever that means...
 
It looks like they might have had a look at JAWUG and nodedb and got their idea of a broadband initiative from there. Using my 2020 vision I think that community networks will be up and running faster than they will get their network up and running.

Having said, that it is always worth listening.
 
First congratulations to RPM, great oppurrunity.

Just a thought, whenever there is discussion of broadband we seem to put much emphasis on the international bandwidth, which is relevant right now. But if and when the broadband becomes affordable there will be a lot that can be done locally (within SA). So, initiatives like above would really open up new avenues/oppurtunities for business and common population.

What say the forum ???
 
1st question : to BMI-T - what you getting paid to do this ??

2nd question : to BMI-T : What we going to get paid to do this ??

last question : to ALL : Whose gonna pay what and whose gonna get what ??

A clear picture will emerge if the questions are honestly answered.

Whoever dreamt up this idea saw one thing at the end of their DreamBow - money.

Money from ?? - the consumer

Money to ?? - the dreamers
 
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Luke7777 said:
If they had *any* vision at all, they would've pushed for 2020. Everyone knows that 2020 vision is perfect ;)
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Luke - Open a company (PTY/LTD) now called 20/20.
Register 2020.co.za, com, com.au, .net, .org ...
Then - in about 14 years time, you'll be sitting on a goldmine.
Good one.


Anyways.
This is one hell of an undertaking.
You've got to implement a wireless network that can provide safe, secure and efficient connectivity to around 10 million users.
It's like starting our own internet.
Methinks that they don't even know what services this network must provide.
VOIP ? BROWSING ? EMAIL ? INFORMATION LIBRARY ? FAULT REPORTING ?
Methinks that somebody in govmint decided that a cool tech project would be nice, and the nature of this project is completely unknown.
So - exactly what they want from us in such a meeting is completely unknown.
 
Good one on RPM!

Please other Cities / Metropolls take note - Cape Town anything?

Also I wonder if we'll still be using braodband tech in 2030? .../hmmm thinks about that. Silly thing to say, this is South Africa and we have Telkom, and if all goes well, we'll finally have true broadband by 2030. :confused:
 
stoke said:
...
So - exactly what they want from us in such a meeting is completely unknown.
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Agreed, but what they get from RPM & MyADSL will be their starting point - that which defines how and if they should proceed...:)
 
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