CoJ Broadband Initiative: Your feedback needed!

rpm

rpm

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Hi folks

As you know the City of Johannesburg is launching a broadband initiative. The following issues will be discussed, and it will be great if you can give feedback on these issues. As always I will be representing you guys, so your feedback will govern MyADSL’s input.

Discussion Prompts: (A brief overview of the topics/themes to be discussed with you)

• Should the City have a Broadband Strategy?
• The role of the City. Enabler or player or both?
• How should the City act in order to speed up affordable broadband access across the city? Ideas for the short term as well as the longer term are required.
• What specific ideas does your organisation have to assist the City? Confidentiality if required will be maintained.
• The City is interested in having suppliers provide “Proof of Concept” projects to beta test various options. Can your organisation assist in this regard?
• What other projects are you aware of that should be consulted by the City in order to ensure an integrated approach in this project.
• What concerns do you have regarding this initiative? What do you think will be critical impediments to the development of a City Broadband strategy?
• Who in your organisation is best placed to work with the City in this initiative?


Thanks and regards,

RPM
 
• Should the City have a Broadband Strategy?

Without a doubt. Key principles of same to include (i) collaboration with all other municipalities in Gauteng (ii) collaboration with provincial government development initiatives.

• The role of the City. Enabler or player or both?

Both. Player role to be confined to areas where wards/communities request same, and confined to the extent that fiscal input from such areas allows for such role to be undertaken.

• How should the City act in order to speed up affordable broadband access across the city? Ideas for the short term as well as the longer term are required.

This implies an enabling role. Get those with infrastructure involved - JRDA can assist with their robot structures carrying transceivers, as can City Power with their light poles, Joburg Water with their pipeline servitudes, etc.

• What specific ideas does your organisation have to assist the City? Confidentiality if required will be maintained.

Only one idea as a personal contribution - make sure that the whole thing is properly project-managed, with firm deliverables and timings, and accountable persons overseeing the rollout. Other than that, hold talkshops to a minimum and get off your butts and just do it - don't let it be another Gautrain debacle!

• The City is interested in having suppliers provide “Proof of Concept” projects to beta test various options. Can your organisation assist in this regard?

No. Why not just invite the suppliers/vendors already?! There are enough capitalist opportunisits out there who would be willing to undertake pilots/proof of concept rollouts at their own cost, given the chance to make plenty bux in the future...

• What other projects are you aware of that should be consulted by the City in order to ensure an integrated approach in this project.

Check the Tshwane powerline pilot, and the Grintek/Telkom WiMax pilots.

• What concerns do you have regarding this initiative? What do you think will be critical impediments to the development of a City Broadband strategy?

The 2 "L's" - Legalities and Laziness. Hopefully the first is not an issue, though this is far from clear. The second just needs some butt-kicking.

• Who in your organisation is best placed to work with the City in this initiative?

Nobody.
 
1. Every big city should have his own broadband initiative. Soccer Worldcup 2010!!!

2. By all means it should be both.

3. Create infrastructure. Creating hotspots for wireless and exchanges with enough DSLAMS.

4. Telkom has to set aside his pricing policy and should go for capable people with ideas and imagination. (MyADSL people of course...*ggg*)

5. Of course every IT specialist can assist, but as well the simple user to show what the man on the street sees and understands what ADSL is capable off. Certainly to obtain this, Telkom must drop prices to an affordable level for the man on the street.

6. I think education at the base of the population in the main key. What will an sophisticated ADSL do for you, when you not in a position to use and understand it.

7. My greatest worry will be the behavior from TELKOM. We they be of help and open up their ols style structure or will they maintain their old-fashioned points of view. Then the whole exercise will fail.

8. Creatives, laymens and technician should work hand in hand.

Thats basically the main points for me. Further examinations of those points requires more time.
 
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rpm said:
Hi folks
• What concerns do you have regarding this initiative? What do you think will be critical impediments to the development of a City Broadband strategy?
RPM
Click to expand...

It must be entirely self funding. It must not be funded in any way by the rate payers, in fact it must contribute to greater efficiences in the running of the city to enable a reduction in local taxes.
 
MaD said:
Why doesnt Slaapstad have this?! :(
Click to expand...
aktewally i think we are a little bit ahead of jhb in terms of wifi broadband rollout - afaik there will be a proof of concept implementation in the next two weeks run by the city of cape town

knysna municipality are the leaders - actual implementation about to commence
plett municipality have their own in-house erected and operated system
+ the under-serviced area licencees are beginning to get their acts together - for most of them this will involve a collaboration with a party able to provide initial infrastructure (wifi)

& there are words in the wind to the effect that there is enough action happening on this front for telkom to have formed a special pressure group to combat wifi....apparently this was formed last Monday with a brief to lobbying ICASA to step up action....we shall see but there is definitely a battle happening

again afaik jhb and cape town were both granted private telecommunications network (PTN) licences fairly recently and this is where the momentum is coming from...i have seen some of the economic analysis and the municiaplities are absolutely amazed at the savings which they can achieve once they take telkom mostly out of the loop (per PTN licence terms and conditions there must be only at least 2 nodes interfacing with the public switched telecommunications network (PSTN) (i.e. break-in and break-out) and the licencee may not route calls from one PSTN user to another through the PTN....other than that all internal calls for the municipality and calls either originating or terminating within the PTN are allowed without use of the PSTN

the really interesting bit for me is what does the municipality do with spare capacity - per the Minister PTN licencees may sell spare capacity.....afaiik cape town is looking at this from a public-private-partnership angle...sell spare capacity to an operator with set social roll-out obligations subsidised by that operator being "allowed" to operate on a commercial basis in more affluent areas. IMHO this is a fantastic WIN-WIN-WIN situation for the muni + universal access + the operator

...there is of course a loser :)
 
dominic said:
& there are words in the wind to the effect that there is enough action happening on this front for telkom to have formed a special pressure group to combat wifi....apparently this was formed last Monday with a brief to lobbying ICASA to step up action....we shall see but there is definitely a battle happening
Click to expand...
If thats true then they are looking for a war. Why dont they just lower their prices then ppl wont have to look for ways around them.

ICASA has more NB things to do than worry about wireless networks, hell theres how many running here in blouberg/tableview - the entire area has tons of AP's.

Telkom can get stitched either way, I'm up for punting any alternative service provided its good.
 
Me thinks that if Telkom does try to get Wirless networks banned it will (and should) be contested from all directions - mabye some of us should write to ICASSA now? I just am not sure what is happening :confused:
 
kilps said:
Me thinks that if Telkom does try to get Wirless networks banned it will (and should) be contested from all directions - mabye some of us should write to ICASSA now? I just am not sure what is happening :confused:
Click to expand...
cannot be specific but there is a LOT happening and an array of powerful and well-connected people with a material interest in seeing telskom come second on this one
 
• Should the City have a Broadband Strategy?

No. The city must provide the required services to it's citizenry at minimal cost to said citizenry. Factors like broadband access are not a required service to be provided by a city. Having a city provide broadband access is the same as having the governmint provide telecoms, like Telkom was.

However, the city's existing internal network must be maintained and upgraded and run as efficiently as possible. If there is spare bandwidth within this network that can be sold, this spare bandwidth must be utilised to curb costs.

• The role of the City. Enabler or player or both?

Neither. The city must not provide this service.

• How should the City act in order to speed up affordable broadband access across the city? Ideas for the short term as well as the longer term are required.

The city must petition governmint to allow their citizenry to self provide, upon recieving said request from it's citizens.

• What specific ideas does your organisation have to assist the City? Confidentiality if required will be maintained.

Identify and get rid of ineficiencies, just like any other organisation. If you want, I'll come and do that for a small fee.

• The City is interested in having suppliers provide “Proof of Concept” projects to beta test various options. Can your organisation assist in this regard?

The city has neither the skills not the infrastructure to measure the long-term effectiveness of any kind of technology project.

• What other projects are you aware of that should be consulted by the City in order to ensure an integrated approach in this project.

Take a close look at Telkom. Take a close look at Sentech. Take a close look at WBS. Take a close look at IBurst. Take a close look at MYWireless. Take a close look at IS. Take a close look at SAIX.

• What concerns do you have regarding this initiative? What do you think will be critical impediments to the development of a City Broadband strategy?

The city is not geared to provide technology based services. Chances are that, once competition is introduced into the country's communications business sector, the city will not be able to compete with the services that the existing players can provide, and the monies already spent will have been wasted. i.e. The city will waste our tax money on a venture that they should not be involved in.

• Who in your organisation is best placed to work with the City in this initiative?

./ed.

Summary

I seriously think that adding another responsibility to city governance is a stupid idea seeing as they cannot even handle their existing responsibilites efficiently. Do we really want to be taxed even more by an ineficcient giant ? Why not just buy Telkom back ?
 
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stoke said:
Do we really want to be taxed even more by an ineficcient giant ? Why not just buy Telkom back ?
Click to expand...

I think you have a point.

It is great that the city is realising that something needs to be done. I think they should be the driving force behind a project like this but they should not actually be implementing it.
 
my 2 cents...

• Should the City have a Broadband Strategy?
Yes
• The role of the City. Enabler or player or both?
Enabler, the city should have other priorities than to offer broadband services. We supposedly have companies that do that...

• How should the City act in order to speed up affordable broadband access across the city? Ideas for the short term as well as the longer term are required.

The city should use it's weight to influence national policy regarding healthy competition amd market liberalisation.

• What concerns do you have regarding this initiative? What do you think will be critical impediments to the development of a City Broadband strategy?

In order to be practical, it is probably not sufficient to limit it to the city of J'burg. If city councils (and all levels of government) cooperate to insist on better broadband services, it is more likely to happen. And if need be, use prestige projects like the 2010 worldcup to press your case.
 
Broadly, I think government have been too quiet about it's actual goals in developing the country. For the past 10 years I've felt the balance shift, in some opinions good, in some opinions bad. However, I think it's commendable that CoJ wants to know if it should pull it's finger out it's nose and do something for the better of South Africa.

If this is a success, I am sure the rest of the country would surely follow.

rpm buddy, you can use that word for word in your speech ;)
 
Hi guys

Thanks a bunch for the feedback: I have included most if it in our presentation document.

Noone: I have included your part, word for word :cool:

Regards,

RPM
 
I think the city should only enable the broadband initiative, they should not be in control. The more free-market the system is for various company's to compete the beter.
Free markets bring the prices down an the service up.
 
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