Big mesh network and a broadband council planned for Western Cape

“We have chosen Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain in the Metro to roll-out the pilot project, and the Greater Saldanha area outside the Metro,” Winde said.
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Not to sound over-pessimistic, but will the equipment not just disappear within a few weeks, impairing the bigger network? And if this indeed happens, who will be the ones to continue to sponsor replacement equipment?
 
Woohoo!! Eventually!!

Species8472 said:
CTWUG? :D
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Not the same, the CTWUG does not allow internet access, its local only.
Viva said:
Not to sound over-pessimistic, but will the equipment not just disappear within a few weeks, impairing the bigger network? And if this indeed happens, who will be the ones to continue to sponsor replacement equipment?
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I doubt it- I would suspect they will mount them at the top of those SUPER tall lights all over Khayalitsha - then they are safe and have a power source. Normal street light poles are another easy and safe spot. I have eyed out all those spots for AGES wondering when it will happen.
 
Bern said:
Woohoo!! Eventually!!


Not the same, the CTWUG does not allow internet access, its local only.

I doubt it- I would suspect they will mount them at the top of those SUPER tall lights all over Khayalitsha - then they are safe and have a power source. Normal street light poles are another easy and safe spot. I have eyed out all those spots for AGES wondering when it will happen.
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Dont think they will use the
SUPER tall lights all over Khayalitsha
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because it will be a HUGE mission to do maintenance on the devices.
 
Space_Kriek said:
Dont think they will use the because it will be a HUGE mission to do maintenance on the devices.
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How often do you need to do maintenance on good equipment that is well installed? Vs maintenance due to theft/damage if they are more accessible? If they go full mesh the only cable needed for most of them is for power - I would add a small battery as a safety, but that is just me. I am sure they can also align device and actual light maintenance to coincide.
 
It's not going to work. The basic theory is flawed. This is not how you build a broadband network that will be future-proof. Any kind of mesh network is likely to get congested instantly, and not do what they think it'll do.

There are ways of building a mesh network that will work. For a start, use the commercial, licensed 4G spectrum that should already have been assigned to the operators who know what they're doing, and don't use the mesh to backhaul the signal at all, but link lots of basestations with fibre to get the bandwidth density (Gbps/sq km) that's going to be required. Basically, build a 4G cellular network. Otherwise, all they're going to have is a giant WUG with the performance of dial-up, or, at best, hotspots that work when there are no users, and are useless otherwise.

If anyone from the Western Cape government is reading this, PLEASE don't build this monster - just get the private sector to build competitive networks (fibre included). We know that works. What party do you think you are? Remember there's an election coming up. Don't you dare use our money for this government intervention / state capitalism nonsense.

At the risk of sounding trite, if this kind of magic worked the way you're imagining it, don't you think it would have killed off all the world's mobile broadband providers by now?
 
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Give the people internet! Can only help educate the country, or start the next big fraud hotspot (Nigeria has had that title for way too long ;)).
 
Will be watching with interest in hope that they achieve big. If so, it will be a good example to Joburg and others to pull finger.
 
And the madam with the track record once more shows the ANC how it's done.

Zille for president, that is all.
 
They should take the R12 Million and put it into CTWUG by subsidizing equipment. Why build another wireless mesh network when there is a perfectly good one there already?

My knowledge of exactly how CTWUG works is limited but surely government connecting this network to the internet (for free) would benefit everyone? Provided they enforce fair use policies etc.
 
Napalm2880 said:
They should take the R12 Million and put it into CTWUG by subsidizing equipment. Why build another wireless mesh network when there is a perfectly good one there already?

My knowledge of exactly how CTWUG works is limited but surely government connecting this network to the internet (for free) would benefit everyone? Provided they enforce fair use policies etc.
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I dont think this is exactly the same thing. With the WUGS...you need all kinds of funny equipment and antennas mounted on your roof and stuff. What Cape Town and the WC is planning on doing is basically rolling out a massive WiFi network...similar as to what they are trialing in the Stellies CBD.....but on a massive scale. That is what I think anyway...could be wrong.
 
It's not going to work. The basic theory is flawed. This is not how you build a broadband network that will be future-proof. Any kind of mesh network is likely to get congested instantly, and not do what they think it'll do.

There are ways of building a mesh network that will work. For a start, use the commercial, licensed 4G spectrum that should already have been assigned to the operators who know what they're doing, and don't use the mesh to backhaul the signal at all, but link lots of basestations with fibre to get the bandwidth density (Gbps/sq km) that's going to be required. Basically, build a 4G cellular network. Otherwise, all they're going to have is a giant WUG with the performance of dial-up, or, at best, hotspots that work when there are no users, and are useless otherwise.

If anyone from the Western Cape government is reading this, PLEASE don't build this monster - just get the private sector to build competitive networks (fibre included). We know that works. What party do you think you are? Remember there's an election coming up. Don't you dare use our money for this government intervention / state capitalism nonsense.

At the risk of sounding trite, if this kind of magic worked the way you're imagining it, don't you think it would have killed off all the world's mobile broadband providers by now?
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This is Africa, not the rest of the world... all the rules are different.

Its the DA and I'm sure they have the right engineers to do this properly.
 
Nerfherder said:
Its the DA and I'm sure they have the right engineers to do this properly.
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At the right of sounding like a libertarian, that's not the point. The telecoms market in South Africa has been liberalised. ANY government entity that competes with private industry is by definition unfair. Would it help if we called the mesh network Telkom, to make the point, and it demanded that it not pay its spectrum fees, and refuse to let anyone else have access to its last mile, and charge whatever it likes, while pleading poverty and giving bad service? Sound familiar? That's precisely what we've been trying to get away from.
 
eltherza said:
Why wouldnt the 4G get as congested as that mesh? (I have zero understanding of 4G)
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Basically, if you build a proper 4G network (which is going to take lots more money than a provincial government has), you need lots and lots of basestations (more than with 3G), closer together, with fibre backhaul to all of them, and enough spectrum on each sector. That doesn't guarantee it'll never get congested, but it'll certainly carry much, much more total bandwidth than a mesh without those characteristics. The problem is never one or two users, it's what happens when you have a million. Of course, it really helps to be using a global mobile standard (LTE) and bands (800/2500MHz) to get the economies of scale so that everything becomes affordable.
 
ads said:
Basically, if you build a proper 4G network (which is going to take lots more money than a provincial government has), you need lots and lots of basestations (more than with 3G), closer together, with fibre backhaul to all of them, and enough spectrum on each sector. That doesn't guarantee it'll never get congested, but it'll certainly carry much, much more total bandwidth than a mesh without those characteristics. The problem is never one or two users, it's what happens when you have a million. Of course, it really helps to be using a global mobile standard (LTE) and bands (800/2500MHz) to get the economies of scale so that everything becomes affordable.
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?!? What you are saying is... don't spend 12mil on wifi... rather spend 12bil on 4g...? how does that make things better?
 
Polemus said:
?!? What you are saying is... don't spend 12mil on wifi... rather spend 12bil on 4g...? how does that make things better?
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In a nutshell, yes. It get's you a million users with real speeds. You'd be very lucky to get a thousand users with anything like broadband with R12m.

It's not that difficult to check this. There's no global conspiracy by radio engineers stopping everyone from having a magical, cheap network. This is the real physics and engineering. What you get from 4G is a lower cost per bit than pretty much anything else at all, especially using the right spectrum.

Feel free to build the R12m network - it's not really that much money, so nothing's stopping you if you believe you're going to get a few Rand from each of the millions of users you'll have to pay for it. Any bank would give you money for such an amazing business model, and there are plenty of ECNS licences around. I wouldn't be too confident though, 'cos the first thing they'll do is consult an expert who will tell them you're delusional.
 
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