eremos
Senior Member
I've been looking at all the suggestions for the TAG advert, and one kind of gripped and inspired me. Very basically it suggested highlighting the cases of CT, Tshwane and Knysna setting up their own city-wide networks.
It would be a really really good thing for more municipalities to do this, and it struck me that this is exactly the kind of thing that IT people in municipalities can and will get passionate about - everybody is frustrated by the high costs of telecoms - and they could use the cost-saving factor to sell it to the higher-ups.
If all the cities in SA are networked it could pave the way for cities to start interconnecting, and if we're really ambitious, we could actually have the first nationwide mesh network in the world (that I know of).
This is actually kind of a repeat of the old days. SA got automated telephones systems relatively late in the game, which meant that in the 80s and early 90s all our equipment was actually of a higher standard than much of the rest of the world. Telkom has made us wait, so now that we're in a position to catch up we can take advantage of the latest technologies without anything (except licensing, but I have a feeling even ICASA won't stop municipalities from interconnecting) holding us back.
Anyway, is there any way we can get municipalities that have set up or are planning on setting up citywide networks to share their information, expertise and experience with other municipalities that are considering doing the same? I know if the information was out there every one of us would be willing to pay a visit to their municipalities and bring their attention to it.
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It would be a really really good thing for more municipalities to do this, and it struck me that this is exactly the kind of thing that IT people in municipalities can and will get passionate about - everybody is frustrated by the high costs of telecoms - and they could use the cost-saving factor to sell it to the higher-ups.
If all the cities in SA are networked it could pave the way for cities to start interconnecting, and if we're really ambitious, we could actually have the first nationwide mesh network in the world (that I know of).
This is actually kind of a repeat of the old days. SA got automated telephones systems relatively late in the game, which meant that in the 80s and early 90s all our equipment was actually of a higher standard than much of the rest of the world. Telkom has made us wait, so now that we're in a position to catch up we can take advantage of the latest technologies without anything (except licensing, but I have a feeling even ICASA won't stop municipalities from interconnecting) holding us back.
Anyway, is there any way we can get municipalities that have set up or are planning on setting up citywide networks to share their information, expertise and experience with other municipalities that are considering doing the same? I know if the information was out there every one of us would be willing to pay a visit to their municipalities and bring their attention to it.
E
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